Palm muting
Palm muting (also known as palm mute ) describes a playing technique of the touch hand when playing guitar . It is a sub-form of damping ( English muting ). Here, the strings of the instrument are dampened with the ball of the heel of the stop hand. To do this, it is placed over the desired strings near the bridge. The strings that have been dampened in this way are prevented from vibrating freely during play, producing a shorter, percussive sound.
You can vary the sound effect by changing the contact area. If the hand is close to or on the bridge, this causes less damping and the strings can vibrate longer, so that the sound can be heard longer. The further the hand is moved away from the bridge, the higher the level of damping and the shorter the tone, resulting in a percussive effect. Palm Mute is often used in metal and rock songs , but also in classical guitar to create unusual sound effects .
The technique is also not uncommon for acoustic guitars (used for example by Neil Young , Massey Hall 1971).
