Palm Mute - Chunky and Heavy
Written by Edward Cupler
Palm Mute can do more than just give your guitar a heavier chunky or percussive sound. It can also help you reduce some unwanted sounds you may experience while soloing or just playing through heavy distortion at a loud volume. When properly executed a good palm muting technique will allow you to achieve a more chunky or percussive sound on those lower string and also help to deaden them when you're soloing on the higher strings giving your playing a cleaner more professional sound.
What is Palm Muting?
Palm muting in it's most basic form is simply resting the fleshy part of your picking hand on your guitar strings close to the bridge of your guitar. You can achieve a wide range of tones depending on how hard you rest your palm on the strings and how close to the guitar bridge you place your hand. As a rule the farther away from the bridge you are, the more the strings will be deadened and the more percussive (chunky) the sound. Also, if you press too hard with your palm, the notes can go out of tune. Check out the following examples.
Palm Mute Example #1 (E minor + B chords)
Palm Mute Example #2 (Open E has palm muting, E5 chord has none)
