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Thepalm mute is a technique forguitar andbass guitar known for its muted sound. It is performed by placing the side of the picking hand across the guitar's strings, close to the bridge, while picking. The name is amisnomer as the muting is not performed using the player's palm.^[1]

Palm muting is a standard technique used by both classical andelectric guitarists. It is widely used inheavy metal androck music but it is often found in any style of music that features electric guitars withdistortion. It is responsible for the characteristic "chugging" and "crunch" sound of distorted guitar music. Palm muting can also be used in conjunction with awah pedal to produce the distinctive scratching sound often heard indisco music.

Palm muting is also used by electric bassists in order to obtain a warm, "thumpy" tone which is sometimes similar to that of a finger-pickeddouble bass (as noted above). The strings may be plucked with the thumb or with a pick, which gives a more percussive tone.

There are many ways to perform palm muting, but, generally the following are recognized:

• Applied pressure. Amount of applied pressure tends to vary the sound a lot. Slight touch makeslight muting, thus producing more pronounced, fuller sounds. Pressing the hand down intensively makesheavy muting, enhancingstaccato effect, adding percussion and making notes less recognizable. Certainly, with some amplification gain, heavily muted notes sound quieter than lightly muted, but given a fair amount ofcompression, loudness levels become the same and heavily muted notes sound less muddy, with fewerovertones and tonal characteristics than lightly muted.
• Hand position. The most common way to play with palm muting is placing the edge of picking hand near the bridge, dampening the strings when necessary. However, moving the hand further from the bridge and closer to the neck changes the effect drastically. Moving the hand closer to the bridge (and even resting part of edge on the bridge) makes palm muting lighter. Moving the hand further from bridge (going up to the neck) makes palm muting heavier. Note that resting the palm on the bridge is usually considered a bad practice among guitarists (other than for performing palm muting) for the following reasons:
  • Ergonomic: it is generally not very ergonomic to play this way; maintaining the picking hand edge always strictly parallel to the bridge rivets the motions and encumbers performance of most advanced techniques;
  • Metal part corrosion: while playing intensively, hands usually become sweaty;sweat coming in contact with metal bridge hastens itscorrosion; metal strings corrode too, but strings are considered a consumable, while the bridge is more expensive.
  • Tremolo interference: when using a floating tremolo bridge, such as theFloyd Rose, applying pressure to the bridge may affect the pitch of played strings.
• Amount of amplification (gain).
• Muted notes / chords. Generally, it is recognized that full chords (with 3') sound muddy with large amounts of amplification and distortion, unlike single notes andpower chords.^[2] Sustain sound coming from each string simultaneously makes large amounts of overlapping overtones after distortion and thus a chord loses its clarity. Palm muting of such chords helps to alleviate this problem, giving notes chuggier, more distortion-friendly sound.

Palm muting is a basis for many other techniques, especially those specific to electric guitars, such assweep picking oralternate picking.

In guitartablature, palm mutes are rendered with a "P.M." or "PM", and a dashed or dotted line for the duration of the phrase to be muted. If the pitches of the muted notes are discernible, the fret numbers are given accordingly, otherwise they are represented with an X in lieu of a tab number. (If an X appears in lieu of a tab number but there is no P.M. directive, this means to mute the string using the fretting hand, not the picking hand.)^[4]

    P.M.------------|e |------------------|B |--8-------8-------|G |--7-------7-------|D |--6-------6-------|A |--7-------7-------|E |----0-0-0---0-0-0-|

One popular song with palm muting is "Basket Case" byGreen Day, where power chords are accented then muted to create a sense of energy and urgency.

    > PM--------| >  PM-| < PM--| >      PM-| < PM- > PM>  PM-| < PM--| <d# |-----------------|-------------------|-----------------|-------------------|A# |-----------------|-------------------|-----------------|-------------------|F# |-9---------------|-------------------|-----6-----6-----|-------------------|C# |-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-|-----9-------9-x-x-|-6-6-6-6-6-6---6-|-----6-------6-x-x-|G# |-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-9-|-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-x-x-|-4-4-4-4-4-4-6-6-|-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-x-x-|D# |---------------7-|-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-x-x-|-------------4-4-|-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-x-x-|

More aggressive styles of palm muting grew out ofthrash metal in the mid-late 1980s with bands such asMetallica,Slayer,Anthrax andMegadeth. The technique was fused with fast alternate picking, under high gain, to create a driving, percussive effect. Other uses of palm muting can be heard in post-punk bands likeGang of Four andTalking Heads, as well as in contemporary musicians such asIsaac Brock ofModest Mouse. Another example would be "Paranoid" byBlack Sabbath, which uses palm muting for much of the song.

• Heavy metal gallop
• Pizzicato
• Djent

Wikiquote has quotations related toPalm mute.

• Guitar Lesson - Palm Muting in Rock & Heavy Metal Learn how to apply the palm mute technique on guitar

• Guitar performance techniques
• Heavy metal performance techniques

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