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RH Palm muting while popping
- Thread starter Vlamgobid
- Start date
You mean when slapping? Nothing wrong with damping the lower strings, especially on 5 string. I have a technique in my books called palm mute slapping. In this I slap near the bridge while palm muting the strings, so you get a muted slap tone. Sounds pretty cool.
There’s three actions to pop higher pitched strings -
1. Rotating forearm
2. Extending the wrist
3. Lifting finger away from the bass body.
Can you describe your technique a little more clearly please?
I do sometimes mute while popping and slapping, it’s more an open hand/flat on strings type of approach. Gives a tight sound. I don’t HAVE TO mute every time to get the pop. It’s just one way, one tool in your toolkit.
I also do open hand floating style for faster fancier stuff.
I also do a curled hand slap/pop technique, both palm muting or floating. This allows me to alternate between it and finger/thumb plucking very easily. [But hey, I play fingerstyle acoustic guitar and fingerstyle jazz electric guitar this way too, so it was already a default position for me].
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I use the rotating forearm technique while my palm lies on the lower strings. I don't use this technique all the time, it's just when I'm incapable of using my left-hand fingers to mute.
I find muting to be a weird topic. Mainly because I never really thought about it. I never consciously paid it attention to it, it just developed as I continued playing. But i did in fact notice a couple weeks ago that I do mute with my palm. Again, I didn't actively learned it, it just happened
Hand positions
- whole hand flat on strings.
- pinky side of hand on all/most strings
- heel of hand one/some strings
Finger positions
- all fully open
- index & middle curled, ring & pinky straight
- all 4 fingers curled.
Thumb angle
- pointed up
- horizontal
- pointing down
When Muting whilst playing, Hand can
- stay on strings while playing, more staccato/percussive sounding.
- come on/off strings while playing, mix of sustaining and staccato notes.
- not mute whilst playing, but only mute when not playing. Suits super fast lines. That Velcro-on Fret Wrap string mute at nut/1st fret really helps control/reduce open string sustain/volume with this style of playing.
There’s plenty of ways to slap & pop, to mute, etc. Try them all and see where it leads you.
Oh thanks, I always have the urge to mute while I'm playing which leads me to lose focus on what I'm playing. Thank you so much for responding I really appreciate your time.
Cheers.
Check out the Fret Wrap to mute open strings at 1st fret.
Or DIY with a hair tie aka scrunchy, etc.
Big difference for muting on fast bass lines.
My long-time method has been using lots of right hand palm muting on the low strings exactly as you describe (but even more left hand muting). I sometimes use the palm as a percussive sound before a pop.
However, I have finally gotten consistent with what I'll call rake popping, although I'm sure it has a name. A basic example would be thumb slapping a root on the A string, index popping a 5th on the D, and ring popping the octave on the G. It took a while to unlearn the palm muting and let the notes ring out. I've been doing this in drop D, so it's lots of ringing notes and the opposite of what I used to do in that there is zero muting.
I am glad I spent the majority of my time playing mute heavy, but I am also really having a blast doing the opposite. More options for moving around the neck and it fits the genre I play. Do what's most fun for you.
That’s a bit cheating isn’t it?
Better get your muting straight before using a fret wrap.
I have one but only use it sometimes when recording complex tapping stuff.
Muting and vibrato are like fingerprints. Very personal and specific to the individual.
It’s just a tool. Nothing more.That’s a bit cheating isn’t it?
Better get your muting straight before using a fret wrap.
I have one but only use it sometimes when recording complex tapping stuff.
It can be extremely helpful for certain styles, in studio, specific bass lines, or to fast-track developing certain aspects of your playing. I started playing 35 years ago before they were even released, but I would have benefited from using one while I was still learning.
Granted, try not to be overly dependent on it (which applies to anything) and gradually you can learn other styles of muting too to fully round out your skill set.
I agree they can be useful for certain things like tapping but I would never advice them for a beginner or to someone who has trouble with basic muting.
Ironically those are the people it was designed for and majority of the people who buy it. (I worked as 2IC in a music store for years).
