Palm Mutes

What are Palm Mutes and how do you play this technique on the guitar?

“Palm” refers to the hand when you stretch your fingers. Your hand looks like a palm tree. However, we still don’t know exactly which part of the hand we need for palm mutes.

For palm mutes, we use the lower part of the hand between the wrist and the little finger. Generally, we rest our hand on the strings constantly at a certain level. So the strings are not muted when needed but rather “opened” when needed.

Opening the strings when needed, not the other way around

I often see beginners letting their hand hang in the air. Any more distance between their hand and the strings, and they would need finger extensions. 😛 But of course, that’s perfectly normal. I still remember my “aha!” moment when I discovered that the hand should rest on the strings.

To avoid having a large gap between the strings and the hand, we usually rest the hand on the strings. This way, we also have more control over where our hand or pick is.

The reason for this is that we often need to mute the strings. For example, with a distorted guitar, unplayed strings can often resonate, which doesn’t sound very good.

So we keep part of the hand on the strings and use palm mutes to prevent the unwanted noise from the other strings.

This “opening the strings when needed” doesn’t apply to strumming patterns where the strings should generally remain open. You need to figure out for yourself when to use the palm mute technique and when it’s not necessary.

What do palm mutes look like in sheet music?

There’s not really a specific notation for palm mutes. At least, I haven’t seen an official version of how palm mutes are written in classical pieces.

However, in tabs, palm mutes are sometimes indicated, provided the tabber has included them. Often they are simply left out or ignored because it’s assumed you know where they should go.

In tabs, palm mutes are simply marked as “P.M.” A standalone “P.M.” (as in the blue example) means that one note or chord should be palm muted.

The red example shows a “P.M.” that extends to the next note or chord. This is marked with a dash and ends with a vertical line (or whatever you want to call it). This can, of course, continue indefinitely, depending on how long the palm mute should last.

Palm Mutes Technique

How does it work?

First, make sure that the part of your hand between your wrist and little finger rests right at the back of the strings. Ideally, right where the strings “come out” of the guitar or where they are last fastened.

Like this, or even a little further back. You can control how “strong” your palm mutes sound. The further back (towards where the strings are attached), the more “open” it sounds. The further forward (towards your left hand), the more closed, short, or muted it sounds.

The normal position looks something like this. With this position, you have a good hand posture and can easily switch between palm mutes and open strings.

Palm Mutes vs. Open Strings

Don’t play all the strings. It’s important to know that with chords, not all strings need to be played. That’s not necessary because with palm mutes, not everything is clearly audible. Still, you can hear the notes well enough, as they are more or less recognizable.

That’s why, unlike open strings where we usually strum the entire chord, with palm mutes we only play a few strings, often in the bass or middle string ranges.