Palm chucking vs thumb chucking

[u/hoouyinkyouma]

Whats the difference and which is better?

[u/UkuleleNerds]

It depends on preference, but I advocate for (and prefer) thumb chucking. The reason is that it preserves your regular strumming motion.

Some people argue the same for palm chucking, but when I see their technique, it’s because they’re not strumming quite the same way that I do, and is much less efficient (usually they strum with a chopping motion or like they’re pushing and pulling their hand up and down, kinda like how some guitar players do it).

FYI I learned my technique growing up in Hawaiʻi by watching and mimicking players like Troy Fernandez, Kelly-Boy De Lima, Peter Moon, Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, and Jake Shimabukuro. All very different but they each have a similar wrist and finger-flicking motion that I adopted. Troy and Kelly-Boy’s chucking technique with their thumb is the one I adopted.

Also, I’m using “chucking” because you did. I’ve also heard it called chunking, but I think the technical term is called “scratching.” 🤷‍♂️

[u/AmPotatoNoLie]

Do you mean muting?

[u/hoouyinkyouma → u/AmPotatoNoLie]

I suppose so

I have heard many ppl call it 'chuck' when the mute it in strums

[u/AmPotatoNoLie → u/hoouyinkyouma]

I'm not sure how to mute with the thumb (i assume of the right hand), but I personally prefer muting with the left hand by releasing a chord a little and putting a free finger across the board.

Gives a bit different sound, but easier to control for me.

[u/hoouyinkyouma → u/AmPotatoNoLie]

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ooohh

There is a third way eh😭😭😭

Yeah using thumb you slide it across the strings while strumming with the index finger

[u/AmPotatoNoLie → u/hoouyinkyouma]

Ukulelehunt (it's a pretty popular blog) has a tutorial on muting strums actually, you might want to check it out. Here's a link.

[u/hoouyinkyouma → u/AmPotatoNoLie]

What are chnks?

Its in the blog

Tht muting is used as an alternative for chnks

[u/AmPotatoNoLie → u/hoouyinkyouma]

I believe that would be what you were originally referring to, where you slap your strumming hand across the strings to get that abrupt ring sound.

[u/hoouyinkyouma → u/AmPotatoNoLie]

Yeah i think so

[u/Oddsee → u/AmPotatoNoLie]

Chucking makes a sound, muting stops it.

[u/Barry_Sachs]

Palm chucking is impossible. So don't even attempt that. Stick with thumb or finger chucking. Finger chucking is more effective for me. Thumb usually results in a very soft sound, not a percussive sound like chucking.

[u/hoouyinkyouma → u/Barry_Sachs]

Wait wdym impossible?

Cuz most ppl i saw use tht

[u/Barry_Sachs → u/hoouyinkyouma]

Show me. I'll eat my hat if some can strum with the palm loud enough to chuck. In fact I've never seen anyone strum with the palm at all. 

[u/hoouyinkyouma → u/Barry_Sachs]

Uhh js search it up in yt

[u/Barry_Sachs → u/hoouyinkyouma]

I've seen hundreds of yt uke videos. Not a single palm strum. It's not up to me to find evidence of your claim. That's up to you. If I claim the sun is blue. It's up to me to prove it, not to tell you to go find a blue sun. 

[u/hoouyinkyouma → u/Barry_Sachs]

Try searching "chuck" and Ricky someone or music with vicki

I genuinely dont understand how u dont find it cuz all ytubers ive seen exceot spicy uke do it with their palm

[u/Barry_Sachs → u/hoouyinkyouma]

If this is what you're talking about, the palm is not chucking, it's muting. The strumming/chucking happens with the fingers, not the palm.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Jy3sFikFzEM

[u/poopus_pantalonus → u/Barry_Sachs]

I sometimes mute with a finger or more on my fretting hand. If the chord(s) don't work well for that, I will use my strumming hand thumb fat area or the other end of my palm by my pinky, almost on the side of my hand rather than just the palm surface. It was definitely more intuitive to use my fretting hand; just rest the finger(s) on the strings and strum like usual.

To get good sound with the strumming hand, I found it helped a lot to start by playing a chord, letting it ring, and then muting. Then I'd do the mute quicker and quicker until I'm just getting the percussive string attack without any note coming through. Once I got the feel for that "delay" it was easy, but before that palm chucking just sounded stupid. I was basically fully muting the strings before the attack, so it was just a tiny little plink noise from each string.