A key ingredient in rock rhythm playing is palm muting.

Since it is such an important tool, we're going to dedicate this lesson to really honing in on some next level palm muting tricks and techniques in a rock context. One of the best ways to practice palm muting is to use a lot of gain, because it forces you to have solid palm muting technique to keep it sounding tight. So in this lesson we'll venture into some hard-hitting, hi-gain rock and maintain our focus on the palm muting through all of it. Let's get started!

High Gain Sound - lots of distortion, scooped mids - harder to control, not necessary for palm muting, but useful for mastering the technique.

Finding The Sweet Spot - muting location relative to bridge.

Applying and Releasing the Palm Muting.

Other Applications - palm muted arpeggiations and root note palm mutes.

Now, lets check out a short sample tune that incorporates all of these approaches and techniques!