I’ve been playing a song that has the following pattern strumming power chords:
All 8th notes, all down-strum
m=palm mute
o=open (i.e. unmuted)
ommommom|ommommom|etc.
I think I’m doing OK for a while, but after about 15-20 seconds, my forearm starts to cramp something fierce and I’m forced to stop playing. My technique is probably off, but I can’t figure out any way to stop the cramping. I’m laying my bottom part of my hand (the line from the pinky to the wrist) nearly horizontal to the bridge, right in front of it. The pinky and ring finger is lightly touching the guitar on that little board protecting the wood. When I open up for an unmuted strum, I use the pinky and ring finger (sometimes the middle finger as well) as a base to lift up my hand (starting from the meaty portion near the wrist) at a fairly small angle (5-10 degrees or so).
No matter how I adjust my positioning, the cramping always seems to start up.
What am I doing wrong? Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks.
Hmmm…there doesn’t need to be much in the way of pressure for palm muting to work, just enough to deaden the string where your hand is. Is it possible that the action on your axe is too high for this kind of playing? I can’t imagine that making too much of a difference, but that might be part of it.
Makes sense to me - when I started playing more punk songs in my band, I had to deliver the “all down strokes, all the time” aggressiveness and my wrist and picking hand would kill me. I just kept at it and built up endurance - I make sure I include Green Day’s Basketcase or She (with a chunky guitar instead of solo bass at the intro) in my practices just to keep in condition.
I can’t really comment on your technique - sounds fine in general, but who knows what I might pick out if I saw you doing it up close for a period of time.
Here’s an idea - how are you holding the guitar when you’re playing? If you’ve got the guitar too high, like Dave Matthews or something then you’ll be compressing your forearm muscles making the downstroke heavy songs a bit more tiring. Try putting on a strap and hanging the guitar as low as you’re comfortable with. The angle of attack with your picking hand could make some difference. Downstrokes are more comfortable as a straight down move than at any real angle.
Have you tried not resting your pinky and ring finger on the guitar? When I palm mute, my hand is rotated more than yours, so that the line from pinky to wrist is 45 degrees from parallel to the bridge and my pinky, ring and middle fingers are together, not touching the strings or the guitar. I am able to strum a bit more naturally and freely this way while staying close enough to the strings to mute when I want to. I don’t have a guitar with me, so I can’t dissect my own technique any better than this right now, but doing what I have attempted to describe allows me to palm mute without cramping.
Yep, down-strokes kill, but as you’ve discovered, it’s a muscle thing. Feel the burn, it means you are out of shape! Playing punk songs (or anything crunchy) will help build your forearm endurance. Also, the thickness of your pic will change things a bit. I used to play with a stupidly thin pick when I was younger, hardly any attack. Now that I’m a more experienced player (and have stronger hands), I’m moving up to a stiffer pick and getting the chunky sound I need.