Palm mute

Palm muting can also be used in conjunction with a wah pedal to produce the distinctive scratching sound often heard in disco music.

Palm muting is also used by electric bassists in order to obtain a warm, "thumpy" tone which is sometimes similar to that of a finger-picked double bass (as noted above).

More aggressive styles of palm muting grew out of thrash metal in the mid-late 1980s with bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth.

The technique was fused with fast alternate picking, under high gain, to create a driving, percussive effect.

Other uses of palm muting can be heard in post-punk bands like Gang of Four and Talking Heads, as well as in contemporary musicians such as Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse.

A demonstration of a guitarist palm muting
Guitar phrase without and with palm mute
The Ska stroke Play : palm muted downbeat downstrokes and staccato upbeat upstrokes [ 3 ]
Though notated with quarter notes, the Ska stroke sounds like sixteenth notes due to muting or dampening. [ 3 ]