Get your fingers in the right place and your powerchords will rock!
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Now try this palm muting exercise. The first and third stabs are palm muted; the second and fourth ones ring out. Listen to our audio to hear the difference.
Concentrate on timing and good tone here in our hard rock riff. The second chord stab in bar 2 is played off the beat so listen carefully. It’s fine if your muted strums catch more than one string – as long as they stay muted!
6 PARTIAL G5 CHORD Paul learned this chord last month, and he’s practising switching between this and the D major shape.
5 D5 POWERCHORD Good news: if you accidentally choke the high E, it creates a D5 powerchord. It’s not the intended chord, but it still sounds good.
4 DMAJOR CHORD
This diagram shows you where to place your fingers in a D major chord. The numbers tell you which of your four fingers to use. The black dot is a root note.
1 MUTED POSITION Imagine you’re doing a karate chop. Rest that part of your picking-hand as close to the bridge saddles as possible, on the strings you want to mute.
2 UNMUTED POSITION
Use a small wrist rotation to lift your palm off the strings, but stay close so you can quickly shift from muted to unmuted.
3 DMAJOR CHORD
Your third finger needs to be arched, like this. If the knuckle collapses, it will choke the E string.