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Posted by: Staos Apr 19 2008, 03:46 PM

Hi all, first time poster here with a question. How in the world do you play really fast palm muted chords? I can play palm muted stuff decently fast, but when I try to do it with upstrokes AND downstrokes I can't really angle the pick up enough or get enough leverage to get it to sound good. I've heard some talk about holding the pick at an sideways angle, and this makes it a lot easier but it sounds much worse.

I'm not sure what the rules about copyrighted material are on this board, but would a short excerpt from a song just to illustrate what I'm talking about be appropriate?

Posted by: Smikey2006 Apr 19 2008, 03:51 PM

i can't really see a case where you would have to be playing palm muted chords that fast perhaps try doing them all downstrokes.. since they are palm muted chords fast i can assume its something heavy? am i correct? to add a bit more heavy try downstroking them all.. if the run is something like this

-----------------------------------------------E
-----------------------------------------------B
-----------------------------------------------G
--777777777777----------------------------D
--777777777777----------------------------A
--555555555555-----------------------------E

instead of alternate picking all the chords.. you can downstroke them.. or do something like this

-----------------------------------------------E
-----------------------------------------------B
-----------------------------------------------G
--7--------------------------------------------D
--7--------------------------------------------A
--555555555555-----------------------------E

it makes the passage sound emptier.. but i know many situations where this is how these runs are done.. but more clarification on the riff could lead to better examples and better advice

Posted by: Staos Apr 19 2008, 03:56 PM

Attached is a short sample.

 example.mp3 ( 301.96K ) : 289

Posted by: Iron King Apr 19 2008, 10:22 PM

Unless I'm mistaken that's KMFDM

anyway, that's like the second example smikey gave you

essentially the guitarist is playing the chords and then plays the root not while palm muted

like this:

2
2
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Im not sure, but I think the bass player is playing the same thing... which is why it sounds so much heavier than it would if just you played it

Posted by: superize Apr 19 2008, 10:39 PM

QUOTE (Iron King @ Apr 19 2008, 11:22 PM)

Posted by: Marcus Siepen Apr 20 2008, 10:44 AM

If it comes to high speed palm muted chords, the "chords" turn into the root note, the other notes are only used when you accent something.