I'm starting to look at a song I've played before many times called "Down By The River" by Neil Young. The song is in G, but the verse does a nice percussive, riffy sort of thing in an Em7 to A progression. The original gets it's percussive feel from some palm muting.
Here's the original (I think) studio version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoA5cqDSasM
I've always played this using open chords. Standard issue Em7(0-2-2-0-3-0) and A(X-0-2-2-2-0). I mix up which strings I play, depending on what I want to hear at any point in time. sometimes full chords, sometimes not.
So, the question, in two parts, is this. How would you do the palm muting, and how would you suggest a less experienced player go about it? Yes, it may be the same. Here are some initlal options.
A: It's a right palm mute all the way. Learn how to palm mute while playing a faster rhythm and quit bothering everyone for once. :evil:
B: Drop guitar down 1/2 step or whole step and employ barre chords, leaving you with a potentially easier left hand mute. (well, left hand muting easier for me, anyhow.)
C: Play the Em7 and A at the 7th and 5th frets repectively, and use left hand muting.
D: Use left hand mute on standard tuning, but just strike the fretted strings.
I did try C and hated my tone or the voicing. Ugly stuff. It might have been just me?
Thanks for reading and considering the question(s).
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Well I did this:
Listened to song
Looked at the chords Em7 and A
Thought about how to do it (waste of time)
Just started playing and tried to sound like the recording
Look down at hands and see what I was doing
I was using a combination of muting. Some palm muting but what I found worked with it was bad technique. Play the open chord, roll your wrist a little so the strings go from your finger tips (correct technique) to the pads of your fingers. This allows you to use those fingers to mute the open strings as well as the ones you were holding down while applying correct technique. Does that make any sense? Correct technique to play the chords, poor technique as a tool to mute the strings as well as the open ones next to them.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
you can left-hand mute an open chord. an A major chord, for instance, i'd play the chord with my index finger and use the other three to mute while simultaneously releasing the chord.
when i mute, i generally use both hands unless one's doing something else.
@TR: Ohhhhh, I think I get you. You're talking about the fret hand doing the rolling and such?
@jason brann: you mean you mute them between your fretted strings and the pickup where you're playing the rhythm? Doesn't that affect key or tune?
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
it's just a normal left hand mute. i may have described it badly. you relax (not lift) your finger so you're not fretting down, but you don't move your finger. your hand just rests lightly on the strings so it doesn't ring.
on this song, you also mute right handed simultaneously, and pick across the strings instead of down into them when you're muting.
if you just mute with one hand or the other, you don't get as percussive an attack.
don't forget to develop right hand muting. my right hand monitors how much my strings vibrate often; especially with an overdrive kicked in. I want the wallop but I also want clarity between chords or phrases. just brush the strings with the right edge of the hand is enough sometimes. one can get percussive too with timing.
Thanks for the tips guys. I've youtubed for some visuals and I've seen what I needed to see. I've no doubt that this needs to be in the tool-box. I've been able to do some in the past, but nothing to this extent. Especially the right hand.
I've been practicing it a bit each day since. As with most things, I'll practice and practice and one day I'll get that touch and be able to feel it. Second nature after that. :D
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Definetly a touch and feel thing.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
