Palm Mute Crunching

Hi everyone! In this tutorial, we'll be taking a brief look at developing a solid "crunch" sound with our palm muting. This is especially significant in regards to hard rock and metal riffing. Palm muting involves putting the side of your picking hand's palm across the strings as you play. Doing so prevents the strings from ringing out, and gives a tighter and more abrupt sound to the notes you play. You may have to experiment a bit with your picking hand's placement on the strings. I'd recommend having the side of your palm rest on the strings about an inch or two from the guitar's bridge. Also, make sure you don't put too much pressure on the strings with your palm. Put just enough pressure to give the notes a muted sound, but not too much pressure to where the notes disappear entirely. Lastly, as I mentioned in the video, using your bridge pickup usually sounds the best and has the most clarity when playing heavier palm-muted riffs. However, of course do whatever sounds best to you. Once you have the basic feel down for getting that "in your face" crunching sound with your palm muting, head on over to the next page to learn the exercise!