String Bending the Correct Technique?

[Laird_Williams]

Originally Posted by JCook1

There's never been any rule that I've been aware or that says that a "bend" must be up to a whole tone. I think that if you listen to a lot of music that contains bends - blues for one - you'll find that most of the bending is done to a half tone or less, with whole tone bends happening fairly rarely. A bend is simply modifying the note a bit from the strict scale, and I think the tradition of bending strings to change the note comes originally from Africa/Asia where the style is to modify the note as you play it for expression. You can hear the same effect in singing from India and the middle east, and in instrumental playing from Africa and Asia, and not just on stringed instruments. Often the note modification is only a quarter-tone. It's in rock music where the whole tone bend occurs most often I think, because they're playing on electric guitars using ultra light strings (.011s or .010s) and very low action, so it's easier to bend to a whole tone. If your bend sounds good in the music, then it's right, you don't need to worry about bending all the way up to a whole tone. As stanron says, you don't really need to worry about the pitch so much unless you're going to hold the note for a length of time.

Jack

Agreed - but you should still be able to bend to exactly the pitch you want - the one you hear in your head. So learning to bend ACCURATELY to 1/2 and whole steps actually makes bending to those "between" tones much more accurate as well.

[arie]

Originally Posted by ironhorse777

I Just started learning string bending today. I am finding it kind of difficult to bend up to pitch. I either bend sharp or flat. I use a tuner to bend as I am unable to hear if I am bending to pitch. Will I be able to hear this better with time or do I have a poor pair of cans?

as you can see a wide variety of answers and not all in agreement. guitar technique is about as individual as the people playing the guitar.

fwiw, i might suggest trying to bend up a whole step at first because imo discerning between whole notes is a bit easier then half notes for a beginner. once you get the whole notes down then go for 1/2's.

[Laird_Williams]

Originally Posted by arie

as you can see a wide variety of answers and not all in agreement. guitar technique is about as individual as the people playing the guitar.

fwiw, i might suggest trying to bend up a whole step at first because imo discerning between whole notes is a bit easier then half notes for a beginner. once you get the whole notes down then go for 1/2's.

That's actually how I teach bending on an electric for exactly that reason. But I have found that most folks need some further hand strength development in order to bend a whole step on an acoustic - even up in the middle of the string. So if they are learning to bend on an acoustic, I tend to start them on 1/2 steps for a bit until they get the "hand juice" to be able to control a bigger bend. (this is "AGF" after all) ;-)

[jseth]

A couple of things about bending...

As a few have replied, there really are "no rules" about bending strings; however, there ARE things that can facilitate that endeavor.

There is quite a difference if you are playing a fingerstyle piece that employs a string bend or when you are playing single note "lead" passages... true that a bend with more than one finger can totally take you out of a fingerstyle piece, but for the other application, I use however many fingers are "behind" the fretted note for support in the bend...

If my initial note is fretted with my pinky, then I will use the other three fingers to support that bend by placing them on the same string and using all the fingers for support... similarly, if the initial note is played with the ring finger, I'll use the first and second fingers as well.

When bending a note (especially at first) it helps a lot if you actually have a concept of "what note am I trying to play". Certainly, playing the end note without bending, then going to the fret or frets below it and bending up to that note is a good way to get a sense of "how much" it takes to get to a whole step or a half step or just a slight gliss or tremor...

When bending notes, I try to fret the starting note solidly and very close to the fretwire of the next higher fret, the fretwire closer to the bridge of the guitar... then USE that fretwire as a "bridge" to travel to the desired note. Once you get the hang of it, you may find that bending (especially a trill or a half-step) can be done easily from a different location within that fret.

Starting the bend with a slight (or more pronounced) gliss or slide up to the starting note can give a bit of momentum to the bend. I will employ this technique, especially on an acoustic guitar (strung with 12's), to get the sound of a whole step when I'm really only "bending" a half step in reality.

Just keep practicing, listening as you go, getting the feel of it... that's what it takes, really, to become comfortable with bending strings intentionally...

[JCook1]

Originally Posted by jseth

Starting the bend with a slight (or more pronounced) gliss or slide up to the starting note can give a bit of momentum to the bend. I will employ this technique, especially on an acoustic guitar (strung with 12's), to get the sound of a whole step when I'm really only "bending" a half step in reality.

This is a great technique! I never thought of it, but I'll try it out tonight.

Jack

[pf400]

Bend the 3rd string at the 5th fret, up until it matches the pitch of the 2nd string which you hold down at the 3rd fret, and play both of these notes together...should sound familiar as it's a good old blues and rock technique. Move this bend up and down the neck and you'll hear another common riff.

I'm just not as strong as lots of great rock / blues guitarists are. To get those huge blues bends on one string (check Buddy Guy or Stevie Ray Vaughn out), I do the bend (three fingers inside one fret, push up using the wrist to get the bend started, and then slide up a fret to two, and continue the bend at the higher position. I can get more than a whole step up doing this, although it doesn't quite get the same feeling as the great players can.

Many great guitarists tune the guitar down a half or whole step, which enables bending with less effort.

Finally, a tremolo ("whammy") bar or pedal, can get you bending notes quite easily, although the feeling of the note might be a bit different than what you want to project.

Practice bending a lot. I couldn't do the vibrato thing at all in the beginning. After years of practicing it...I can do quite well now. There are several techniques to get that but that's another thread.

[Dalegreen]

bending on the acoustic is certainly more work than an electric for sure.
There are three things I try to get students to do when bending on the acoustic.

* always use the fingers that are available, ie. if your 1/2/3 or 2/3/4 fingers are free, use them, pushing with equal strength, one on each fret of the string being bent.

* stay as close to the top of the fret wire of the note being bent as possible, makes for an easier bend

* think of it as lifting a set of weights, the initial push is the most critical to reach the desired pitch.

and I feel semi tone bends ( one fret) are better to learn technique and build hand strength, before attempting those full tone bends.

and again, most important is your ear, listen to the pitch as you raise to the target note

Lower action and a light gauge set of strings also add to the ease of bending