Originally Posted by: Jolly McJollysonPeople palm mute in jazz all the time. I doubt they entirely rule out a technique like that.

I should have been more specific in how Berklee wanted you to pick in all the times I've mentioned it in various threads. Not only did they want you to float, but they wanted you to hold the pick with your thumb and forefinger, and have the rest of your fingers balled into your palm like a fist. I found this created alot of tension in your picking hand, and yeah, they did rule out palming. You have no idea how restrictive they were in "proper technique" unless you were there. One of these days I may start a thread on past and current Berklee students to see what's going on these days.

On a slightly different note, the tech that setup my Ibanez was a Berklee Performance graduate- from the Japan school they setup overseen by an American Berklee trained instructor. He graduated about 15 yrs. ago, we got to talking, and he told me they were pretty restrictive, still a be-bop jazz school. Don't get me wrong though- Berklee has alot to offer in the way of theory, ear-training, arranging; but if you're a performance major, it's their way or no way. In NYC there's plenty of Berklee graduates that play in small venues I've heard- unfortunately, THEY ALL SOUND THE SAME. Of all the perfomance majors I personally started with, not a single one stayed on to graduate. Maybe things have changed these days; I really don't know. Hey, I just found this on google re: Berklee Guitar Performance major: http://www.berklee.edu/departments/guitar.html A Jimi Hendrix Lab?? Jeff Beck?? Guess they're catching up with the times. Wish that was the case when I was there. Here's another site I find really interesting from Berklee; the guy is not only playing a solid body, but he has some distortion going. Check out his right hand- when I was there, they NEVER would have let your hand be open like that. http://www2.berkleeshares.com/assets/display/768385/berklee_metronome_for_shredders.mov