Hey Friend,

Have you had enough yet? Are you enjoying these exercises, or am I starting to bore you?

Well, you're getting another on today, whether you like it or not...

But I hope you like it!

The exercise today is a bit faster-paced and incorporates a technique you may or may not be familiar with. It's called palm muting, another staple in Rock music. 

Palm muting is an easy concept to understand, but it takes some practice to be able to do it well.

You use the heel of your strumming hand to cover the strings down at the guitar bridge, keeping them from vibrating as they do when you strum. You don't need to use any pressure on the strings - simply allowing your hand to rest on them is enough to "mute" them.

The idea is not to completely stop sound from the strings - it's to just prevent them from sustaining the notes. When we talk about sustain on guitar, we mean how long the note will last until you can't hear it (simplified definition). 

Sustain comes from a number of factors, but if you use your hand to stop the notes from ringing, you have effectively prevented the note from continuing.

What palm muting does is give the chords a percussive character. It's an abrupt sound, but it serves Rock well.

Many Rock tunes are played at a faster tempo to boost the sense of energy in the song. We can play a fast riff and use these punchy chords to create that aggressive sound.

The progression is IVm  IV  I  V. Using chords from the key of E major, that gives us C#m, A, E and B.

In the exercise, to give it a more Rock-like feel, I've used power chords instead of full chords. Remember, power chords drop the 3 note from the triad. If you want to learn more about power chords, check out Easy Power Chords...

In this case, that gives us C#5, A5, E5 and B5. If you want them to sound even cooler, play these with your amp distortion cranked up.

Without further adieu, here's your dose of fun for the day:

Hope you have a great weekend!

Peace~

Dave