Picking problem

[hellion]

Hello everyone!

I´ve been visiting this site for some time and I think it´s a great resource.
This is my first post however, and I was hoping to get some help with a something thats been bugging me for a long, long time. Here goes: I have
been playing electric for about 8 years.
I recently started to practice "the floating hand" thing. The reason that I tried this was tension in my right shoulder/arm/wrist that I couldn´t seem to figure out. Well, no more anchoring - no more tension! It´s been a big step forward for me. I have way better mobility and feel already, but there is a downside:
I can´t palmmute anymore. Floating and muting are two totally different positions for my right hand that I can´t seem to combine. I guess maybe my problem is about proper right hand position for muting. When I rest my hand lightly to palmmute a run or whatever my picking angle changes drastically.
My pick tends to point "upwards", I try to compensate for this which in turn causes tension again. How do you position your hand for muting so that you can alternatepick without loads of tension?
Any help would be much appreciated.

Best regards
/Hellion

[Mario]

Don't think about yout wrist or angles. Just "be the pick". Be relaxed, but strong, firm. When you hit the string with your pick, it must be a harder stroke because you are attempting to palm mute the strings... If your pick is dancing around when you hit the string, you're doing it wrong. Relax, but be firm. And don't try to speed up before you got the lick at slow speed (with your hand relaxed and firm ;) )

[darknailblue]

when i first started playing i did the anchoring thing too, then I realized like you that I i did the floating thing there was less tension, and I could play my guitar better and lower too standing up! Palm muting is however a different position now like u said. just practice doing licks or riffs that combiine the two. Make sure though that ur doing a nice percussive palm mute and not letting the string ur playing on ring out too much. When I first started combining the two my palm mutes sounded like ****, so I had to practice them very slowly. It sucks to relearn stuff, but it was necessary.

[hellion]

Thanks for your replies guys.
darknailblue: I realize that I have to relearn my muting position,
but I still have this problem with the angle of the pick. No matter how I
try different approaches my pick wants to point UP (towards my head) when
I "roll" my hand back to the bridge. Maybe it´s about how I hold my pick and
what part of my hand I try to mute with. Anyway, I will work on switching
like you suggested.

Best regards

Hellion