My Favorite Sound

My favorite sound is palm muting on distorted electric guitar. You might not be familiar with this terminology, action or resulting sound. I will explain. On a guitar, there are strings. There are other parts of the guitar, such as the body, neck, head and bridge. The strings attach at the bridge, which is attached to the body, and then they run up the neck to the head. Tuning pegs on the head hold the other end of the strings and allow you to change the tension, thereby tuning the string's resonance to a specific frequency. I think I used those words appropriately, if I didn't, don't tell me, I can't handle criticism. Well, now that you have a perfect understanding of the parts and structure of a guitar, I will now teach you how to use the technique of palm muting.
We will pick up from the point where you are playing the guitar. If you can't get to that part on your own, well, I can't help you. So there you are, playing the guitar. The sound is up and the distortion is cranky. Whatever that is supposed to mean. Play a C chord. No, that's an F, move the finger structure up one string so that your ring finger is on the A3 fret, your middle finger is on the D2 fret and your pinky is on the R2 fret...HA HA! Just kidding! There isn't any R2 fret, but imagine if there were and you played it before you played the D2 fret. Do you dig it? Your pinky is actually on the B1 fret to round out the C chord, leave the G and e strings open. I use the lower class e to signify that it isn't the upper case E string.
With the proper chording of C, now place the pinky side edge of your palm on the strings, parallel to the bridge. You can either use a pick or the nail of your index finger to strum the keys. It is your preference. I typically use a pick. Using that pick, while keeping the edge of my palm on the strings lightly, strum the strings with only down strokes. This is palm muting. The sound is something like a crunch, steady and rhythmic. It enhances songs. Either as a slow building introduction to a song, or a transitional bridge, or an accompaniment during a verse. Oh, I can't explain it, and I don't think there are any pictures of palm muting, so I can't post one of those and give you 1,000 words worth of thinking. However, to quote fine arts illustrator Markus Hannonen, "A picture used to be worth a thousand words. New technology has knocked that down to a hundred and forty spaces." Which means that if I had a picture, it might not be any more explanatory than what I've typed so far. Thankfully I don't have Twitter. Enough said.
I will now link to a couple of music videos from YouTube featuring palm muting. Had I the time, software and desire I would splice together just the appropriate parts of these videos to give you a palm muting montage. Without that, I will simply type a few words to tell you where to listen for the palm muting. Enjoy.
Calling All Cars by Senses Fail Palm muting ensues from the very start. Also, this video highlights how ridiculous lip syncing looks in some music videos. I do enjoy the song, good band. Here are two other Senses Fail songs.
You're so Last Summer by Taking Back Sunday Again, palm muting leads into the song. And this song has some crafty palm muting as well.
All the Small Things by Blink 182 This song features palm muting during the verses as well as a build-up before the final chorus. Another good one from Blink 182, palm muting in the beginning.
Cool Kids by Screeching Weasel Palm muting through most of it, plus a homemade cartoon to accompany the song. Here's a palm muting gem.