Palm Mutes

Ok, I just found out that you're not supposed to rest your pinky on the pick guard a few weeks back. I've been doing good at keeping it off and curling my fingers under and all that. It's just that now, picking and palm mutes have become really tuff. Palm Mutes have always been tuff for me. How do some people do it so fast? I think i'm missing something. Can anyone help with some advice?

Well, many of the people that do it fast focus mostly on that aspect of playing. So, many of them anchor on the pickguard or elsewhere, and their other techniques(especially picking) suffer greatly. Palm mutes shouldn't be any harder, since you have to rest your hand on the strings just before the bridge to get the sound. There is a timing issue when playing fast palm muted stuff commonly found in metal music, where your hand doesn't sit on the strings the whole time. It kind of lands on them just before your pick hits them. It allows for much greater speed and does no harm to other aspects of playing technique. This is probably a bit vague. Kind of hard to describe with words, you should find another player that does it, and have him show you. Anyone that anchors to do anything is playing incorrectly, and it limits technique in the long run. Don't do it.

Even when you are picking, you have your picking hand completely hovering the strings? Are you supposed to curl your fingers under? I usually can't help but hold my middle ring and pinky fingers straight out, since i've been trying to get away from resting my pinky on the guard. AND: Your explaination helped me. Thank you very much. I've just always had trouble picking while my wrist is sort of on the strings. It's an odd angle. Thanks so much man!

It's no problem. Some people use a closed hand position(fingers curled under, kind of making a fist), or open hand position(like myself) where your unused picking hand fingers are just kind of hanging out downwards toward the floor. It's personal preference. Just don't rest em on anything. The bottom of your picking hand(the part above your wrist) or the side of it(opposite your thumb obviously) can be laying on the lower strings helping mute them when not in use. When it comes to muting strings and such, there are a lot of ways to do it. You eventually develop your own way of doing it after some time goes by(months/years).