How do you manage fast palm mutes

A lot of songs I listen to have fast palm mutes. Looking to try Holy Wars. Even ace of spades. Is it muscle memory? A matter of slow and fast practice? Do you count?

Has this been a problem for anyone else? How did you conquer it?

In the past I was usually like “OK, I got this, let’s let it fly, who needs counting?” Which of course yielded so-so results at best, something in the ballpark of the original, but nothing more. Nowdays I do it superslow till it’s flawless then start upping the tempo. Needless to say, the results are worlds apart, not to mention that I am not feeding my brain and muscles with wrong information. Slowing down also lets me pay attention at adapting to the different guitars , as I have to slightly adjust when going from a Warrior w/FR to a Horizon w/ EverTune, so that is another benefit of slowing down.

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To gain speed with control you have to train your muscles. Safest way is - like nexion wrote - to just get there by practicing from comfortable tempo upwards. This way you incease tempo steadily being connected to your left hand.

If you want to increase tempo only for the right hand, maybe because it’s the one that is slowing you down, as it had been in my case - I played economic picking a lot, so my left was much quicker than my right - you should focus on this task like Kiko suggested, by building up tempo and endurance. In this case with an extra exercise for the right hand.
Do you know the guitarhacks-course I’m talking about? When he explains how to build up endurance while playing fast?

Since I have a for me satisfying speed I always try to gain more endurance and play fast songs for practice as well - always super critical of course, repeating when I get too sloppy.

As always: Whatever keeps you practicing is the best, so find your way to keep yourself entertained.

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While learning palm muting, I guess you could start with slow down picking to find the right, comfortable spot and gradually play along with faster tempo.

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I notice I have to actually look at my pick hand. Before playing the song I try to warm up a little. I think I’m making progress.

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