BASS
INTRODUCING THE PALM MUTE TECHNIQUE | Adam Nitti
In my last installment I introduced ghost notes and demonstrated how they can influence the overall feel of your bass lines by introducing a funky percussive element into your playing . In this article I want to share another cool technique that can transform the tone , attack , and decay of your lines : the palm mute technique . This is an approach that allows you to play with heavy rhythmic intensity in a way that doesn ’ t encroach on the other instruments in the rhythm section . This is a technique I use all the time to intensify the groove and pulse of my bass lines and make them funkier , and if you haven ’ t tried it before I think you will really dig the way it sounds !
THE TECHNIQUE Many of you will be familiar already with historic bass legends James Jamerson , Carol Kaye , and Bob Babbitt . Their bass playing helped to shape the Motown sound of the 60s and early 70s ; but more specifically , their bass tones defined the funky , organic , muted sounds that helped propel the rhythm sections of that day . These tones were round and fat but combined a “ thuddy ” attack with a short decay . This sound was typically accomplished using a foam or rubber mute that was placed underneath the strings close to the bridge which was a feature found on Precision and Jazz basses during that time . See Figure 1 .
Over the years bass players have emulated this sound by utilizing the palm mute technique . It mimics the sound of an installed bass mute by using the hand as the mute instead and modifies the plucking approach to primarily use the thumb instead of the traditional plucking fingers or a pick .
Although “ palm muting ” is the term most often used when referring to this technique , that ’ s really a bit of a misnomer ; we don ’ t really use the palm of the hand to accomplish this as much as we do the outside edge of the palm . The idea is that the outside edge of the hand does the job of muting by staying in contact with the strings just in front of the bridge . This dampens the attack of the note and significantly shortens the decay . Hand placement is vital because if you maintain contact too far in front of the bridge ( towards the pickups ) you will mute the strings too much or entirely and this defeats the purpose . We want the muting to be enough to deaden the strings but not completely eliminate the decay of the pitches being played . Figures 2 and 3 show the common hand placement for this technique .
With the muting being taken care of by the hand in this modified position , the actual plucking of the notes needs to be approached in a different way . Because the approach angles of the plucking fingers have been significantly altered , it makes much more sense to use the thumb to pluck the strings in a downward motion since it is already in an optimal location to do so . The added benefit of this is that the wider contact area of the thumb adds to the roundness and width of the tone and helps bring it all together so nicely . See Figure 4 .
Keep in mind that it is important to experiment with moving the edge of your palm forward or backwards to fine tune the effect of your muting . This is an important step when starting out because you will want to find the ‘ sweet spot ’ that blends the right amounts of
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