Natalie: Hello there Gigajamer's, this is lesson four, yes count them one, two, three, four, of the essential guitar skills course part one. I am Miss Natalie Barrass, and this man here is Mr David Young. David, how are you?
David: I'm very well, how are you?
N: Pretty good, pretty good
D: Good
N: Let's get cracking, it's…
D: Okay
N: …Gigajam. As always we have our lesson objectives…
D: We do
N: …first off?
D: Okay, this week we're mainly going to be discussing a technique called palm muting, which is a very common rock rhythm guitar technique. We're then going to integrate that into our rhythm guitar playing, and then later on we'll talk about playing palm muting rhythms, with un-muted rhythms and continually developing our chords and our rhythms with the palm muting
N: Mmmhmm
D: Okay? So I'm gonna break from tradition this week. I'm gonna go right to the end of the lesson, exercise seven
N: You're crazy!
D: I am, if…
D & N: (Laughs)
D: Especially not warmed up!
N: You're living life on the edge
D: Yeah I know! Exercise seven if we may?
N: Yes
D: And I'm gonna demonstrate the technique, once it's in place, so people can hear what we're actually striving towards
N: I like it
D: Okay? So exercise seven, we'll play that about a hundred and twenty beats per minutes, which is again, you know, faster than we'd normally play the exercises, but probably about the sort of pace that a lot of songs might be at…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …so we can hear what we're gonna do. And I'll just knock this through now, and let you hear the technique
N: Okay
D: Okay
N: Here it comes
(Xtractor starts playing)
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: We're gonna be playing that…
D: Yes
N: …by the end of this lesson?
D: No problem
N: That's pretty good
D: (Laughs)
N: I'm impressed, okay…
D: Okay
N: …so where do we need to begin?
D: Okay, if we go right back to the beginning of the lesson
N: Okay, so we're, we've ended…
D: We've end…
N: …we're at the beginning again
(laughs)
D: …that's the end, yes, exactly, we'll go right back and we'll look at exercise one in a second
N: Alright
D: But the first thing I need to stress is the technique of palm muting, and explain how that works. First of all I think it's important to learn what it sounds like, more so than how you do it. So the palm muting is using your palm, on your right hand, if you're a right-handed guitar player, to mute the guitar strings. You can still hear the pitch, you can still hear the chords, but it's a more clipped rhythm guitar sound. This is a chord un-muted…and here it is muted. So if I play that in, sort of, eighth notes
N: Yes
D: As opposed to un-muted
N: Oh I like it much better with the muting
D: Okay, and muted
N: You remind me of Bryan Adams
D: Do I really?
N: I've just had a flash, yes
D: Visually
N: Musically
D: Musically, okay
N: (Laughs)
D: So, palm muting, how do we do it? This part of our hand here rests against the guitar strings at the point where the guitar strings go over the bridge…
N: Right
D: …of the guitar. This is the bridge of the guitar here, where the strings are fastened on the body of the guitar, and what we do is we take our hand and lay it down quite gently onto the guitar strings like that, and then the plectrum comes into place. So it's very much a feel thing…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …and after a little while you can feel exactly where the right point is to put your hand, aligned to the sound. Now, if the hand is too far back, no muting will occur at all. If my hand's too near the neck it'll be way too dead
N: Mmm
D: It just turns into cardboard. But if I play the palm muting and move my hand back into position you'll hear it clean up, so to speak And that's about right
N: Around there, yeah
D: Around there
N: So is this a good idea to practise, to sort of move it up and down the strings…
D: It's…
N: …finding where, where the sound…
D: …I think…
N: …is that you want?
D: …I think you need to find where the sound is exactly. If there's no muting at all your hand will be too far back
N: Yeah
D: And if it's too dead, it sounds like cardboard, you know, you just need to move your hand back. And as your hand comes back and, kind of just bumps into the bridge, that's round about where you need to put your hand
N: Mmmhmm
D: Okay? Now I was doing that palm muting on a chord of D5
N: Yeah
D: Which hopefully everybody will know by this point, chord of D5. Which means that the palm muting was lying across strings five and four
N: I was gonna say, is it not covering all of the strings?
D: Well your hand is resting across the strings, but because of the angle of the hand, there's a slight adjustment between the chords. I.e. if you're playing a sixth string root chord, it feels slightly different to a fifth string root chord. It's very hard to see the physical difference
N: Mmmhmmm
D: But the, you can just feel that you need to move across a little bit
N: Bend your hand back just so I can see, so that's like the corner…
D: If I put….
N: …left bit of your palm really, isn't it?
D: Yes. If I go to put my hand down, let's say on an A5 chord
N: Yeah
D: String six and five
N: Mmmhmm
D: Okay? I'll just lay that into position there, turn the volume up. Just show you that again
N: Yeah. And then if you were going down the fifth string?
D: If I move to D5 my hand just moves over a fraction. I don't know if it's even perceivable for somebody watching, but I can feel my palm's moved the dis…the difference…
N: Yeah
D: …in the string spacing
N: So this is something that you'd learn, maybe not by watching you or watching the video, but by actually doing it yourself…
D: But you've got to actually just do it…
N: …by feeling it
D: …you've just got to get the feel for it and as I say the main point is get used to it's too dead, my hand's too near the neck, nothing's happening at all…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …my hand's too far back. And key point is, do both strings ring simultaneously? It's a muted sound, but
N: Ahh
D: …make sure that one string isn't ringing out as if it's un-muted and the other one's muted. Make sure it's even across both strings
N: Cos that would just sound weird wouldn't it?
D: Yeah, I'll just try and demonstrate that badly if I can
N: (Laughs)
D: But that's ringing too much
N: Yeah
D: And the sixth string is really ringing
N: Yeah
D: But the fifth string...
N: You can hardly…
D: …I have got muting
N: ….hear it. Yeah
D: So that's okay, but that one
N: That's taking control almost of that
D: That doesn't sound muted, proper muting would sound like...It just cleans up and becomes…
N: Mmmm
D: …a tighter clipped rhythm guitar sound. That's the key thing. Something else I'd like to mention is don't press too hard on the bridge
N: Ah yeah, what sort of pressure are you applying?
D: Almost none, my hand feels like it's resting, literally just resting, once it touches the strings it stops the strings vibrating in the normal way, and you'll create the sound and the correct technique. But a lot of people feel suddenly very restricted because they've been playing like this. Now the hand feels stuck…
N: …Mmmhmm
D: …and they feel a little bit restricted. But, you know, try and loosen up a little bit. Yes your hand does have to stay in place, but I don't think my hand looks too stuck
N: No
D: It's quite loose, quite relaxed. And I can still move quite a long way
N: It's probably a good thing, a good technique to learn, even if you're not implementing the palm muting…
D: Mmmhmm
N: …because it's controlling that movement isn't it?
D: It is
N: It's keeping it really precise…
D: Keeping it nice…
N: …and in that area
D: …and precise, you haven't got much chance of hitting the wrong guitar string…
N: Yeah
D: …something we've spoken about in previous lessons, because your hand's in that, in that position, and you've just gotta move across. So what…
N: It's a great sound
D: It's a great sound, very, very common in rock, it's a…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …sort of corner stone of rock rhythm guitar playing I guess you'd say. If we have a look at exercise one here, we just have our favourite old two chords again, A5 and G5
N: Yeah
D: Eighth notes, all written in eighth notes. And we're just gonna move, or I'm just gonna play the exercise moving between the A5 and the G5, a bar of each
N: Mmmhmm
D: Palm muting
N: Okay
D: Okay?
N: I'll bring up the Xtractor…
D: Bring up the Xtractor
N: …so we've got a bit of Gigajam background band
D: Yeah, we'll just run this one at, say, eighty beats per minute
N: Yes…
D: And I'll…
N: …I was just gonna say I'll turn that…
D: We, we won't…
N: …down a bit
(laughs)
D: …do it at a hundred and twenty like we did the last one. Just run this one at eighty and hopefully you can hear the, hear the sound and as I say, very important to know what it's supposed to sound like
N: Mmmhmm
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: Here we go then, this is exercise one. It's going down to the G5, back up to A, G. G5, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, finishing off with the G5 there
(Xtractor stops playing)
D: There we go
N: I love, I love that sound, I mean…
D: It's great isn't it?
N: …it's really…yeah, and it's such, is it a simple technique.? Have I just said the wrong thing there?
D: Do you know, it is a simple technique once you kind of trust to just letting your hand fall in the right place, and you've done it long enough. Once you, it's one of those things, once you can do it you can never understand how it was difficult in the first place
N: Yes
D: It's a little bit like that. But initially it may take a little while just to get used to it, so persevere
N: Yeah
D: If it still sounds a little bit too dead just relax, make sure your hand's in the right place, try moving up and down the guitar strings, closer to the neck, further away from the neck…
N: Mmm
D: …and just experiment, and again of course you can watch the video clips of me playing it on the Gigajam course, so you can hear…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …what it's supposed to sound like. Again that's the key thing
N: Okay it's interesting what you said about the, once you've got it it's quite easy
D: It is
N: But isn't that the same when you learn any musical instrument…
D: Yeah, of course it is
N: …you wonder why it was quite so hard
D: Of course, exactly, of course
N: Alright, let's look at exercise two
D: Okay now exercise two is a similar thing, only we're using the chords which root from the fifth string…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …C5 and D5. Other than that, it's all eighth notes, all palm muted, just a D5 to a C5. I have to just reposition my hand slightly because it's on the fifth and four strings…
N: Ahhh
D: …rather than sixth and fifth, but again, plenty of practise and you'll be moving between them without even giving it a moments thought I'm sure
N: Well here we go, this is eighty bpm again
D: Okay
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: Starting with D5
D: Here we go
N: Three and, four and, C5, up to D5, down to C5. One and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and. D, and then the last bar…
D: Okay
N: …with C
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: Stop
D: Okay
N: We're running out of time
D: Okay
N: Tell me what we're gonna be doing in part two
D: In part two we'll continue to play palm muting
N: Mmmhmm
D: It's a little bit trickier because we're gonna play some notes which are not muted, which is where I came in at the beginning of the lesson. Palm muting with notes that aren't muted so you hear that change in dynamics
N: Oooh, mixing it up here
D: Yeah
N: We're getting a bit crazy
D: We are
N: But we're taking it step by step, it's what Gigajam's all about. Join us back here, I can't wait, part two, are you excited?
D: I am, very
N: I'm very excited, guys, we'll see you in a minute
N: Welcome back to part two of episode four. Now I've got a question for you David Young
D: Okay
N: In the break I was having a look through me Gigajam notes
D: Yes
N: And as far as I could see there was nothing on the stave…
D: Yes
N: …on our musical notation, telling us…
D: Mmmhmm
N: …when to palm mute and when not to palm music
D: Okay, well music won't generally tell you which guitar techniques to play…
N: Okay
D: …okay? You have to interpret the music in the way you wish to play it, if you like, unless there's a specific instruction. But generally something like palm muting wouldn't be written on the music. It comes down to style, so for example, if you're playing in a rock type way…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …you may well use palm muting. If you're playing more of a punky, new wave, kind of way you may not. So for example if I saw a bunch of eighth notes written and I was in a certain punk, new wave type band…
N: (Laughs)
D: …if you like, you can tell…
N: I'm imagining you there!
D: Imagine that! It would be this kind of…
N: Yeah
D: Maybe that type of playing. Maybe
N: I'm thinking sex pistols
D: Exactly
N: Yeah
D: But it's a styalistic thing, or you may chose to play it palm muted
N: And again I see Bryan Adams
D: And you'll see Bryan Adams
N: (Laughs)
D: And of course you may actually do a combination of the two….
N: Oooh
D: …which is what we're coming to now
N: I like it
D: See. Okay, what we've done in the Gigajam course, at this particular point as you work through lesson four, we've just told you to mute the eighth notes
N: Mmmhmm
D: All the eighth notes are muted, while we're learning palm muting. Now because when you play a palm muted note it's very short, it just goes 'dink'…
N: Yeah
D: …and it's finished, the longest note value that we can palm mute is an eighth note
N: Ahhh
D: So any note which lasts longer than an eighth note cannot be palm muted
N: Obviously because then that's not…
D: You turn it back into…
N: …the whole point of it…
D: …an eighth note…
N: …yeah
D: …the minute you stop it, it turns into an eighth note. Okay? So what we have written in the next exercise is, or are eighth notes, but also some quarter notes, there's a half note in exercise four as well
N: Mmm
D: Those will not be muted. Okay? So…
N: Alright
D: …the eighth notes are palm muted, all the others un-muted
N: Mmmhmm
D: Now this brings in another technique, in a way, which has to be addressed. It's the same technique for the palm muting, but you have to get used to palm muting, then letting go…
N: Yes
D: …and then putting your hand back down and palm muting again. The un-muting's rarely a problem. You just go back to the way you've played up to this point. That's quite easy, just let your hand off the bridge and play
N: Mmmhmm
D: But it's putting your hand back down on the palm muting accurately, in the right place…
N: Mmm
D: …which is why, before the break, we were talking about the fact that you've got to keep practising that muting, get used to where your hand lives, and eventually just mute and un-mute without thinking about it. Your hand will just move in and out of position…
N: When you put…
D: …nice and easy
N: …when you put your hand down to hand mute, you're not gonna get any noise are you?
D: Not really, no
N: Alright
D: It'll be fine
N: If you do you're doing it wrong
D: Yeah…
N: (Laughs)
D: …it should be pretty clean. It lands simultaneous with your pick, or simultaneously with you picking the guitar strings, so you shouldn't hear any transitional noise
N: Alright, well let's have a look at the exercise…
D: Okay
N: ..let's sort of break it down
D: Okay, what…
N: This is exercise four so we've got...
D: Exercise four
N: …two quarter notes
D: Yeah we're, I'd just like to say also, we're only play…using one chord…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …so we can not worry about the chords other than playing the A5 chord we've got there. Just worry about the muting technique and the un-muting with the rhythm. So bar one as you say we've got two quarter notes…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …which will not be muted. Play those in the, in the old fashioned way…
N: Yes
D: …as it were. And then we've got four eighth notes where we implement the palm muting
N: Yeah
D: Okay? Bar two we've got two eighth notes which will…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …be palm muted. Beat two is a quarter note so un-muted
N: Yeah
D: Beat three is two eighth notes, palm muted
N: Mmmhmm
D: And beat four is a quarter note, so once again that's un-muted
N: Un-muted
D: Okay. Bar three we start with a half note so that's…
N: Yeah
D: …certainly un-muted. So it'll ring for the full two beats
N: Yeah
D: And then beats three and four are palm muted eighth notes. Bar four we have two quarter notes to being with
N: Un-muted
D: Un-muted, and then four eighth notes at the end again which will be muted
N: Are we able to go through this a bar at a time? I mean, I've got the Xtractor but we'll do that in a sec
D: Course we can, yeah
N: Let's do it sort of bar one…
D: Certainly
N: …just on your own
D: What I'll do is I'll count myself in. I'll play the two quarter notes which will be un-muted…
N: Yeah
D: …and then the four eighth notes which will be muted
N: Alright
D: Okay? One, two, three, four. That's what that would sound like. I'll give you a few of those
N: Yeah
D: I'll do it a little bit quicker as well…
N: Okay
D: …because normally the technique will, or the type of music where this will be employed will be slightly faster music
N: Right
D: So I'll just play that way just so you can understand the, stylistically why it's being done
N: So we get the effect
D: Little bit quicker, one, two, three, four
N: And by doing that we can really hear the difference between them. So those are our un-muted…
D: This is going…
N: …that's muted
D: …one, two, three and, four and, one, two, three and, four and…
N: Un-…
D: …one, two
N: …muted…
D: …three and,…
N: …muted
D: …four and, one, two, three and, four and
N: So that's bar one
D: That's bar one
N: Bar two?
D: Bar two sounds like this, one, two, three, four
N: One and, two….two, three and, four, one and, two, three and, four, one and, two, three and, four
D: Okay, that's a trickier bar
N: Yeah, it does look it
D: That's a trickier bar because beat one in the bar which is the two eighth notes…
N: Mmm
D: …is muted and then you've gotta un-mute for beat two, and then mute again…
N: And then quickly bring it back down
D: …straight away for beat three. So that one's more difficult, so again practise it nice and slowly, make sure you understand the technique, but take your time over that bar, certainly
N: Mmmhmm, this bar looks maybe a bit easier
D: This is the easiest bar so far, so we've got a half note right at the beginning which I'll let sustain for two beats…
N: Yeah
D: …and then play the four eighth notes muted again. One, two, three, four
N: One, two, three and, four, one, two, three and, four. And bar four?
D: Bar four, two quarter notes, in fact it's exactly the same as bar one
N: Easy peasy
D: Exactly the same, there's no problems there
N: Okay, let's play it all together
D: Okay
N: Do you wanna do it at eighty or one-twenty?
D: Let's do it at eighty just for the time being so people can understand what's involved in trying to play and then maybe we could speed it up, to get the full effect
N: You live on the edge
D: Yeah
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: One, two, three and, four and, one and, two, three and, four, one, two, three and, four and, one, two, three and, four and, one, two, three and, four and, one and, two, three and, four, one, two, three and, four and, one, two, three and, four and, one, two. Muted, un-muted, un-muted, muted, un-muted, muted. One and, two, three and, four, one, two, three and, four and, one, two, three and, four and. How…
(Xtractor stops playing)
D: Okay?
N: …was that?
D: It was okay for me
N: It sounded good
D: Good
N: That's obviously one to practise…
D: Yes
N: …though isn't it, that changing?
D: That's quite a tricky technique when you're getting used to it, changing in and out of the palm muting and the un-muting. Though I guess like anything else, once you've done it enough it's so much of a feel…
N: Mmm
D: …thing. And it's such a tiny difference between muting, in terms of distance, muting the guitar and un-muting. Something I would like to point out that I've find among private teaching, that when people un-mute, they're so anxious to get their hand off the guitar…
N: (Laughs)
D: …they kind of have this huge exaggerated movement
N: (Laughs) It's kind of like a chicken dance…
D: Ex…
N: …isn't it?
D: …exactly, but all you've got to do is literally let go
N: Yeah
D: So there's no, if I play some palm muting and un-muting…
N: Yeah
D: …hopefully it's not hugely obvious when I'm letting go. My hand's…
N: It's very slight
D: …coming off, it's coming out, of course it is…
N: Yeah
D: …but it's not…
N: (Laughs)
D: Which of course will make it really, really hard to put your hand back in the right position
N: Mmm
D: So, you know, don't worry too much about this. Make sure that you are un-muting, and that your hand is out of the way before you hit the notes
N: Yeah
D: It's almost a simultaneous movement obviously if you're playing very fast as well
N: Mmmhmm
D: But, you know, don't do anything really exaggerated. Keep your arm and hand in more or less the same place
N: And maybe don't expect to get this the first time you do it
D: Of course not no, plenty…
N: It's something that takes…
D: …of practise required…
N: …practise
D: …yeah definitely
N: Alright, so more practise we need
D: Okay
N: Another exercise?
D: Certainly. Okay, if we have a look at exercise five here, similar sort of idea, but we're just changing the chords. It's exactly the same rhythm…
N: Yeah
D: …but we've got a G5 at bar three
N: Ahhh
D: Which makes life slightly trickier
N: It's that little one up level of…
D: Exact…
N: …difficulty
D: …exactly and we have to be thinking about the chord changes. And it's just another piece of information to factor in. So we're now reading the rhythm, we're changing the chords, and we're implementing the palm muting and un-muting when required. So it's…there's quite a lot going on
N: I wish you luck. I'm gonna load the Xtractor up
D: Okay
N: So you can play along with some music
D: Okay, fine
N: Because we know the rhythm now, don't we?
D: Yeah, sure
N: We've practised that in exercise four
D: Okay
N: We'll do it at eighty bpm
D: Fine
N: I think that's a good thing, both for you, me and you
D: Yes, I agree
N: So are you ready?
D: Ready, yeah I'm ready
N: Are you steady?
D: Okay
N: Here we go
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: So this is starting off on A5, one and, two, three and, four. Changing the chord down to G, four and, one, two, three and, four and. Back up to A, three and, four and, one and, two, three and, four and, one, two, three and, four and, one, two, three and, four and. Good thing about this, keep playing I don't want to distract you, it's all on those same top two the sixth and fifth strings. That was G, one, two, three and, four and, one, two, three and, four and, one and, two, three and, four. G, two, three and, four and, one, two
(Xtractor stops playing)
D: There we go
N: That was good
D: Beginning to sound a bit more like what you'd hear on a…
N: Yeah
D: …on a rock record I think
N: The fact that it is on those same two strings…
D: Yes
N: …does that make it easier…
D: Yes it does…
N: …when you're changing?
D: …it does make it easier, no question. I would definitely recommend practising in A5 and G5, which the course does anyway…
N: Yeah
D: …but start on A5 and G5, it's a little bit more comfortable, there's no strings to avoid, and what have you, I'd definitely do that
N: Mmmhmm
D: So if we whip on to lesson, exercise seven, I beg your pardon
N: Exercise seven, which is the one that we heard to you play…
D: That's right
N: …right at the beginning?
D: Yes it is
N: Okay, David as it's nearly the end of the lesson
D: Mmmhmm
N: I'm gonna let you play us out
D: Oh okay
N: Play us to the credits
D: I will do
N: Thank you very much today, brilliant…
D: My pleasure
N: …massively packed lesson
D: Okay
N: A hundred and twenty bpm?
D: Yes
N: Here we go
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: Only four lessons in, and already you should be able to play this, amazing! Join us again for lesson five and keep listening to find out how you can get hold of your very own guitar Gigajam course notes