Tabs or music notation? And how to palm mute?

Gungalley · #1 January 9th, 2007

Hi, I was wondering, when practising, should i practise with tabs or musical notation? Also, I'm trying to play La Malaguena and I realise that you have to palm mute the chords. (If thats what p.m. means) Any tips to palm mute? Can't get a decent sound. THanks.

allthumbs · #2 January 9th, 2007

Go through the mini lessons here. Muting is there.
Brand new to playing the guitar?...read this first.
Standard or tab. Knowing both is better than just knowing one. Tab is easier to start with though.

solidwalnut · #3 January 9th, 2007

Also practice with learning the tune in your head. It's just as important to train your ear. Check out this lesson on Ear Training

Gungalley · #4 January 9th, 2007

Well, I can read both tabs and notation. But I was just wondering how I should go about practising the songs.

Kirk Lorange · #5 January 9th, 2007

Hi Gungalley.

First off, sorry about those 'PM's ... I ususally remove them. They don't really mean 'palm mute' in this case. They're there because I wanted the midi to sound like the version I played and that's the only way I know of to easily shorten the ring on those notes in GuitarPro, which adds them to the image when you choose that function.

I guess you can't see the movie for some reason, or you'd see exactly how I'm playing it. I do sort of palm mute some of those chords, other times I use my finger tips to shorten the ring on those notes I want short.

As for practice, if you can read the tab and notation, just follow that -- it tells you what notes I'm playing and their duration -- and listen to my version for the detail ... simply imitate my version. Take it in small chunks, like one or two measures at a time, then stitch them together ...

Now, I'll get in there and get rid of theose PMs!

Gungalley · #6 January 9th, 2007

Thanks Kirk. I can watch the movie, but I'm a little new to these techniques such as palm mutes, hammer-ons etc...

Kirk Lorange · #7 January 9th, 2007

OK ... you've taken on quite a challenging piece in that case ... still, it's all there to be broken down, listened to and viewed ... and reassembled. Good job it's fun, huh?!

Gungalley · #8 January 10th, 2007

Yea fun piece. I like this piece. Always wanted to play Spanish music when i took up the classical guitar. I thoguht section 1 was rather challenging. Sections 2 and 3 seem alright with me becasue I used to play such chords in my school's guitar ensemble, but I could improve my improvisation. (what a sentence)