Muting: palm mutes and chucks

Not every strum should ring. Two muting techniques give you control: the palm mute (shorten the sound with your picking hand) and the chuck (a percussive muted strum). They add contrast to a pattern and are the start of a more rhythmic style.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• Palm mute with an adjustable amount of mute.
• Play a chuck on beats 2 and 4 without stopping the strum.
• Combine open and muted strums to make a pattern more rhythmic.

Controlling when notes stop is as important as controlling when they start. Two techniques cover most needs.

Palm muting (picking hand). The fleshy edge of your picking-hand palm rests lightly on the strings next to the bridge. The strings sound short and dull but keep some pitch. Moving the palm forward gives more mute; moving it back gives less. Palm-muted eighth notes are the basis of the rock and blues "chug".

The chuck (fretting hand). Strum the chord, then relax the fretting fingers just enough that the strings no longer ring. The fingers stay on the strings. The result is a dead, percussive sound, a bit like a snare drum.

Both techniques are about contrast. A pattern that mixes open strums with muted ones sounds much more rhythmic than one with no contrast.

Find your palm mute.

1. Rest the edge of your picking hand on the strings, just in front of the bridge.
2. Pick the open low E string. If you hear a long note, move your palm slightly forward. If you hear only a thud with no pitch, move it back.
3. The sweet spot is a short note with a hint of pitch.
4. Now play the open A string and the open D string in the same position. They should feel the same.

The chuck. Hold Em. Strum all six strings, then immediately relax your fretting fingers while keeping them on the strings. Strum again: you should hear a dead, percussive sound. The strumming arm does not pause between the two.

Do these in order. Each one is small. Tick the ones you have practised.

• 1.Palm-mute dial

  4 min

  1. Rest the edge of your picking-hand palm on the strings just in front of the bridge.
  2. Pick the open low E string. The note should be short and dull, but with some pitch.
  3. Slide the palm forward (more mute), then back toward the bridge (less mute) in small steps.
  4. Find the position where you hear a short, clear note.

  You have it when

  • You can produce three levels of mute on demand: full, light, none.
  I practised this one

• 2.Palm-muted eighths

  4 min · 70 → 100 BPM

  1. Play Am with a palm mute on every eighth-note down-up strum.
  2. Keep the volume even from strum to strum.
  3. On beat 1 of every other bar, lift the palm for a ringing strum.

  You have it when

  • The muted strums are even in volume.
  • The open strum on beat 1 stands out clearly.
  I practised this one

• 3.Chuck on 2 and 4

  4 min · 60 → 90 BPM

  1. Form Em. Practise the chuck alone: strum, then relax the fretting fingers so the strings mute, but keep them on the strings.
  2. Play D - x U D - x U: down on 1, chuck on 2, up, down on 3, chuck on 4, up.
  3. Loop for two minutes.

  You have it when

  • The chucks sound dead and percussive, with no ringing notes.
  • The strumming arm does not stop.
  I practised this one

Start slowly at 60 BPM. Muted notes are quiet, so listen for evenness. A comfortable range is 70 to 100 BPM.

• Pressing the palm too hard so there is no pitch. Aim for a short note that you can still identify as a note, not a thud.
• Lifting the fretting fingers off the strings during a chuck. Relax the pressure only. The fingers stay lightly on the strings.
• Stopping the strumming arm for muted beats. The arm moves as before. The muting just changes the sound.

Palm muting is the basis of the 12-bar blues feel: steady muted eighths on A7, D7 and E7. Chucks are what make a simple chord loop sound funky.

Try it in: 12-bar blues in A.

Short version (10 minutes)

Do the palm-mute dial for two minutes, then 'Palm-muted eighths' for two.

Standard version (about 30 minutes)

Do all three exercises. Then play the first four bars of the 12-bar blues in A with palm-muted eighths.

• Palm mute: edge of the picking palm near the bridge, adjustable.
• Chuck: relax fretting pressure so the strings mute, fingers stay down.
• The strumming arm keeps moving.
• Contrast between muted and open strums is what makes patterns rhythmic.

You are ready to move on when you can honestly say:

• I can palm mute at three levels on demand.
• I can play palm-muted eighths for two minutes with an open accent on beat 1.
• I can play chucks on 2 and 4 without stopping the arm.