Confession #28 - Palm Muting (Part 2)

In Confession #20 - Palm Muting! (Part 1) we learned about palm muting and how it can be used to get a chunkier sound and to create rhythm patterns by selectively muting certain beats in a measure.

In this confession, we'll learn about another cool application for palm muting, percussive slaps.

Percussive Slaps 

If you strum a chord and mute the strings with your palm of your strumming hand at the same time, you get a percussive sound from the guitar that has very little tonal content.  The resulting sound is different from the percussive sound produced when using fret hand muting (see Confession #25 - Fret Hand Muting!).

This technique is very useful when you are strumming your acoustic and singing a song.  You can use palm muting on beats 2 and 4 to simulate the percussive accent that a snare drum provides when playing with a drummer.

It takes a little bit of practice to get this right.  Strum the chords normally, but when you get to beat 2 and 4 rotate your hand outward a bit so that your palm comes down on the strings near the bridge at the same time that you strum them.

Strumming a "1 and 2  3 and 4" pattern like the first part of the video below should come without too much difficulty.

The challenge comes when you switch to a "1 and 2 and 3 and 4" strumming pattern like the second part of the video.  Because you have to change your hand position to apply the palm muting on beats 2 and 4, its a bit tricky to get a proper upstroke on the "and of beat 2" immediately after applying the palm mute.  Like all things with the guitar, it will come with practice.

In the third part of the video, I play through the G-Em-C-D7 chord progression from Confession #5 - Use a Metronome!  and Confession #7 - Use Pivot Chords! using a "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" strumming pattern, and apply this technique.

(Sorry for the crappy video. WinXP patch KB 2834904 was released by Microsoft on July 10th and has spawned numerous complaints.  Among those complaints is the top half of videos being black, which is exactly what happens when I create the movie in Windows Movie Maker.  Once Microsoft fixes this problem I'll redo the movie.)

Next Week's Confession - Finger 3-4 Independence! (Ex. #3)

Confession #17 - Spice up Your Rhythms!

In Confession #10 - Learn the Folk Rhythm! we learned, well... the folk rhythm. :-)

What makes the folk rhythm interesting to our ears is the way that the strum on the 'and of 2' is held for a quarter note's duration.  This emphasizes a beat that is normally not accented (i.e. the 'and of 2') and de-emphasizes a beat that is normally accented (i.e. beat 3, which is not played).


EMPHASIZE THE 'AND OF 4'

A variation of this is to strum on the 'and of 4' (e.g. counting eight notes in 4/4 time: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & ) and hold it for a quarter note's duration.  Beat 1 of the next measure is de-emphasized because you don't strum on that beat.

Here is a 2 bar strumming pattern that demonstrates this technique:

(Click to Enlarge)

CHANGE CHORDS EARLY

What makes this variation even more interesting is if we change chords early.  Typically we change chords at the beginning of a measure.  But combining a chord change on the 'and of 4' and sustaining it into the next measure is very interesting to our ears.

Here is a 2 bar strumming pattern that demonstrates this technique:

(Click to Enlarge)

ADD SOME 16TH NOTES

Finally, throwing in just a couple of 16th notes into a strumming pattern can really spice it up.

Here is a 2 bar strumming pattern that demonstrates this technique:

(Click to Enlarge)

The pair of 16th notes at the end will take some practice.  Start off slowly and gradually increase the tempo (see Confession #5 - Use a Metronome! ).

To play this successfully  you need to think about your strumming strategy.  I've included Down and Up markers in the TAB.  Until you get to the pair of 16th notes, you are using an eight note down-up approach (i.e. strumming down on the beat and strumming up on the 'and' of the beat).  When you get to beat 4 you are going to break this pattern and strum down on beat 4, down on the 'and of 4' (i.e. the first of the two 16th notes), and up on the second 16th note.  This will be a bit confusing to your strumming hand at first.

See Confession #10 - Learn the 'Folk' Rhythm! for another example of using 16th notes in a strumming pattern.


PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Now let's apply all 3 of these techniques over a I-vi-IV-V7 chord progression in the key of G (see  Confession #14 - Know What Chords to Play!  to understand what the Roman numerals mean).

Thus, the chords are G-Em-C-D7.  This is the same progression that we used in Confession #5 - Use a Metronome! , and Confession #7 - Use Pivot Chords!.

(Click to Enlarge)

Finish this progression by switching back to the G chord and strumming it once.  I don't show this in the TAB above, but that's how the progression ends in the video below.

Have fun with these techniques and try to incorporate them in your playing!

Next Week's Confession - Slash Chords!

Confession #10 - Learn the 'Folk' Rhythm!

The 'folk' rhythm is a very common rhythm pattern in music.  It is used as a strumming pattern in hundreds of songs (e.g. The Eagles 'Best of my Love').  It is used as a rhythm pattern in melodies (e.g. the descending scale pattern on the B string in The Cure's 'Just Like Heaven').  It is used across many genres of music.

This is one rhythm pattern you need to have in your arsenal of guitar skills!


BASIC FOLK RHYTHM

At its most basic, the pattern goes like this (using an open G chord):

The D's and U's under the TAB stand for Downstroke and Upstroke.

Some beginner guitar books suggest that you count a continuous 1/8 note pattern like this "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &", but only hit the strings with your pick on the appropriate beats.  I call BS on this!

If you are counting "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &", then you are making a different rhythm pattern with your voice than the one that you are tying to play with your right hand!  This will only cause confusion.

At some point, you'll want to separate your strumming hand from your voice so that you can sing and play, but now is not the time for that (I'll cover singing and playing in a future confession).

What you count should be the same as what you are trying to play, like this:

    1      2    &   (3)    &    4
    Ooone  Two  annnnnnnd  and  Foooour

To be clear, your right hand will be moving up and down in a continuous 1/8 note pattern.  It has to if you are to play this rhythm pattern.  But don't focus on this.  Focus on the rhythm you want to hear.

VARIATIONS

There are a few variations that can be made by adding in some extra eight notes, like this:

Variation 1

Variation 1 would be counted like this:


    1      2    &   (3)    &    4     &
    Ooone  Two  annnnnnnd  and  Four  and

Variation 2

Variation 2 would be counted like this:


    1    &    2    &   (3)    &    4     &
    One  and  Two  annnnnnnd  and  Four  and


Variation 3

The Eagles 'Tequila Sunrise' takes it one step further and adds in a couple of 16th notes, like this:

Variation 3 would be counted like this:


    1    &    uh  2    &   (3)    &    4     &
    One  and  uh  Two  annnnnnnd  and  Four  and


Note that in all the previous examples, we were strictly using downstrokes on beats 1, 2, and 4, and upstrokes on the 'ands' of each beat.

Variation 3 requires you two adjust your approach.  The strum on the 'and' of beat one is a downstroke!  It will take some getting used to, but it is doable with practice.

Master the previous 3 examples before trying this one.


Next Week's Confession - Learn Root 6 Barre Chords!