IDS: Muted Guitars
As part of my IDS project, I utilized the unique sound of a palm-muted electric guitar to create motion and texture for my piece.
Muted guitar notes have been a mainstay of rock and metal, and even classical guitar and some blues/jazz music for a long time. They’re played by slightly muting a string with the side of your hand to play notes with a distinctive, short muted sound. These are used in classical styles to mimic staccato string instruments, and in rock/metal music to create the ‘chugging’ effect of distortion guitars, and to play fast notes without cluttering the sound too much.
I used muted guitars in my song as part of the main riff, and during the verse and pre-chorus sections to create a steady rhythm that sounded drawn-back and almost thrash-metal-like. The way I implemented this sound in MuseScore is by setting the main instrument of my lead guitar part to a muted guitar sound, then adding a separate channel and setting that channel’s noise to open distortion guitar in the Staff/Part Options. Unfortunately, MuseScore has no option that was both muted and distorted, but the Touhou soundfont thankfully does.
(This post is part of a series of entries into my Learning Journey for my IDS project in Music Composition.)
