Lesson 3 – Introduction to Metal Guitar Riffs with the Palm-Mute Technique

Compare the power chords I played with palm muting to how they sound when played regularly:

To switch to palm muting, rest the edge of your picking hand on the strings near the bridge to slightly muffle them there.

While keeping your hand in this position, pick the strings with a plectrum as usual, and that's all there is to it! ;)

Experiment with varying amounts of pressure the heel of your picking hand applies to the strings, and with how close the hand is to the bridge, and find what sounds best for you.

In guitar tabs, palm mutes are indicated by the P.M. abbreviation.

If there's a series of palm mutes, the P.M. and a dotted line that follows designate the area where the palm muting technique should be applied.

When the dotted line ends, you lift the palm mute and play in a regular position.

Now let's play some riffs!

Pay attention that in the second half of the riff, the first chord in each bar is played without palm muting; the interplay between muted and non-muted power chords makes the riffs sound more interesting than if they were played entirely with a muffled tone.

Notice that the power chords in this phrase consist of three notes, where the highest note is simply a copy of the root note, but located an octave higher. This approach allows you to get a fatter distorted sound from the guitar.

Note that I play the riff slightly differently at the second time, by playing the 3rd bar twice, (the 4th bar is replaced with the 3rd one) and finishing up the phrase with the A power chord:

When you feel ready to move on, jump to the next lesson – 12-Bar Blues Progression – where I've put a couple of cool blues riff variants and introduced the shuffle rhythm.

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