[stargazer]

Hey everyone, I've been playing guitar for a while, a long while actually, but only recently started taking it seriously and I'm having a serious problem, for some reason I can't get that 'chuggy' palm muting sound, when I palm mute I change the note of the string, what am I doing wrong?

 

[Jason]

What I do is press with medium force with the edge of my rght hand(think karate chop :lol and just to the left of the bridge and bang away :shrug:

 

[darren]

Mute a little further from the bridge?

 

[stealthtastic]

You're pressing too hard if you're causing the notes to change just by muting.

 

[Kim]

It's all in the wrist, wax on, wax off. :lol:

try having the edge of your right hand somewhat over the saddles and gently roll it forward as you pick the strings. pick hard, but don't push down to hard on the strings.
once you get the hang of it you can vary the length of the mutes somewhat.

 

[Soopahmahn]

Yeah you're pressing down too hard. You really don't have to press down any harder on the bridge than when you naturally set your hand down to play. You should have it firmly planted, but you're not digging in with your hand.

Doing so will tense your wrist up as well, causing extra stress on your muscles/tendons/joints and hurting your efforts to loosen up and play fast/accurately.

To vary the degree of palm muting you're getting ("to get the chug"), maintain your picking-hand position but simply slide your hand closer or further away from the bridge. At first, there is no muting while your hand is off or barely on the string. Then it will become a slight mute (advantageous when palm muting higher strings). Then it will get to the sweet zone for chugging on the low strings. Past that you'll be deadening the strings very heavily. I'm talking about very minor shifts here.

Just play some eighth note chugs and slide your hand along the string slowly and you'll hear the tone change.

 

[Professor Squidbeard]

It's all in the wrist, wax on, wax off. :lol:

try having the edge of your right hand somewhat over the saddles and gently roll it forward as you pick the strings. pick hard, but don't push down to hard on the strings.
once you get the hang of it you can vary the length of the mutes somewhat.

Take this advice.

also, are you using a guitar with a floating bridge? You will need to adjust your pressure when using a floating bridge to keep the guitar in tune.

 

[Soopahmahn]

also, are you using a guitar with a floating bridge? You will need to adjust your pressure when using a floating bridge to keep the guitar in tune.

Yep, this is why you don't press down much, if any, harder than usual. Playing a floating trem is great palm-mute training.

 

[Oogadee Boogadee]

Consider these things too:

For down-picked 8th notes, along with applying less pressure, palm mute power chords. You'll get thicker chunk due to the delay in hitting the second string, and due to the second string not being the root note. May be suitable for a 1-guitar live band situation. on the flip side, may not be suitable for a 2-guitar live part.... that's fast and needs too be tight. Bottom-line, power chord palm muting will be part and application specific. These 2-note palm mutes are how I get the intense djent crunch tone found on such parts as the intro to Milk on Anthrax's "killer b's" album. If you really want to get intense, do your 3-note power chords.

also remember what you're hearing on disc is, in many cases, more than one track and/or single performance on a string(s).

 

[stargazer]

Take this advice.

also, are you using a guitar with a floating bridge? You will need to adjust your pressure when using a floating bridge to keep the guitar in tune.

Well my les paul is just your standard tune-o-matic but my strat has a floating bridge, I always wondered why it went out of tune.

Thanks for all the info everyone, been really helpful

 

[1]

Mute a little further from the bridge?

This was my first reaction.

I have a muting video that I threw up to make fun of Jeff, but you can't see my hand so it may not be much help.

But the key is really to experiment with moving where the meat of your palm sits on the bridge and seeing what sounds best. I can mute pretty well (though this video audio quality sucks), and the actual pressure that I put on the strings is extremely light.

 

[stargazer]

cool vid, wish I could see more of you're right hand tho, still, I think i'm getting the knack of it, thanx!