Fingerstyle palm muting

[BottomEndian]

Erm, what the thread title says. How do you palm mute when playing fingerstyle? I can do it if I use my thumb to pluck, but I can only play index/middle by contorting my hand and wrist into an unnatural shape. I sort of end up plucking outwards, away from the body of the bass, especially on the E and A strings (and presumably B if I tried it on my 5-string).

Any tips? Or do I give up and use my thumb?

[Doddy]

When I'm palm muting I generally use my thumb and two fingers to pluck-with the thumb usually playing the lower strings-it is
,i think,very similar to using Banjo technique(Scruggs style). Its all just a matter of practice. I've often play in a similar way without
palm muting as I find it quite comfortable now.
Check out some videos of Janek Gwizdala-he plays that way quite a bit.

[chris_b]

With finger style plucking you don't mute strings with the palm of your right hand. As you've found out it can't be done. You can mute with a combination of floating thumb on your right hand, bringing your plucking fingers to rest on the next string and by using the unused fingers on your left hand.

[mcgraham]

For muting whilst doing normal fingerstyle, I straighten my right hand pinky and lower it onto the strings near the bridge to act as a movable mute (like the foam inserts on old P-basses). It does cause some slight extra tension in my hand, but it allows me to play muted lines but with normal fingerstyle.

Mark

[BottomEndian]

[quote name='Doddy' post='542307' date='Jul 16 2009, 03:23 PM']When I'm palm muting I generally use my thumb and two fingers to pluck-with the thumb usually playing the lower strings-it is
,i think,very similar to using Banjo technique(Scruggs style). Its all just a matter of practice. I've often play in a similar way without
palm muting as I find it quite comfortable now.
Check out some videos of Janek Gwizdala-he plays that way quite a bit.[/quote]
Sweet. That sounds like it might work for me. I used to play a bit of alternating-thumb style guitar, back in the day, so I could adjust to that pretty easily.

[quote name='chris_b' post='542314' date='Jul 16 2009, 03:27 PM']With finger style plucking you don't mute strings with the palm of your right hand. As you've found out it can't be done. You can mute with a combination of floating thumb on your right hand, bringing your plucking fingers to rest on the next string and by using the unused fingers on your left hand.[/quote]
I think you're talking about general string muting, rather than the palm-mute effect. Thanks for the reminder though -- I always need to work on my muting!

[quote name='mcgraham' post='542321' date='Jul 16 2009, 03:32 PM']For muting whilst doing normal fingerstyle, I straighten my right hand pinky and lower it onto the strings near the bridge to act as a movable mute (like the foam inserts on old P-basses). It does cause some slight extra tension in my hand, but it allows me to play muted lines but with normal fingerstyle.

Mark[/quote]
That sounds like an awesome idea. I'll be testing that one out.

Thanks, guys. Just wanted to check I was on the right track.