Bending Notes

[Admin]

String bends like hammer ons and offs are an important part of good guitar technique. It is essential for allowing feel and emotion to come out in your playing.

Two important aspects of bending strings (notes) are:

1. Finger strength
2. Ear Training


Finger Strength

The first problem you may encounter when learning to bend is pushing up hard enough on the string.

Make sure you're using a light enough gauge string. Normally, I use "lights" for my guitar although many people I know use a little heavier gauge - 10's or even 11's but I find them a little "muddy".

I personally prefer Ernie Ball lites:

E 042
A 032
D 024
G 016
B 011
E 009

One thing I learned about bending notes is that you can use supporting fingers!

Here's what I mean.

Let's say you're doing a bend at the seventh fret, third string using your third finger. The bend comes much easier if you use your second finger to help the third push the string up.

Lay both fingers on the string. Keep your fingers together; no gaps. This technique provides good leverage to make the bend happen.

Another great thing about this is that the same applies to bending with your pinky. Use your second and third fingers to help your pinky push that string up. In some cases, you may want to use your first finger as well.


Ear Training

Obviously, your bends won't sound good if you don't know what note you're shooting for. You need to practice your bends by alternating between the bent note and the regularly fretted note so that your ear will become accustomed to the correct pitch. This also serves to teach you how far to physically bend the string. I've included "ear training" notes in the exercises below.

Here's the tablature for a good range of bends to practice:

Legend
2b4 = bend second fret note up to fourth fret note.

1. This bend is good for building strength because it's so low on the neck.

use third finger to bend
------------------------------------------------------------
-------0-------0--------------------------------------------
--2b4-----2b4-----------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------

2. This bend is good if you're just starting out. It's located at the center of the string tension and the fretted note for ear training is an easy reach with your first finger.

use third finger to bend
------------------------------------------------------------
---------10---------10--------------------------------------
--12b14------12b14------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------


3. This bend will help your pinky get into shape.

use fourth finger to bend
---------10---------10--------------------------------------
--13b15------13b15------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------


4. Play this one when your pinky IS in shape.

use fourth finger to bend
--22b24------22b24------------------------------------------
---------17---------17--------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
You're now on your way to bending steel with your bare hands!

[saguitar]

Good info, guys. Really, bending notes is one of the main reasons I went for guitar. It's got all those notes in between the notes that are great. In addition to bending a half-step, or a whole-step (if you dare), or go totally gonzo and bend further, like Stevie Ray or Buddy Guy are known to do.

Plus, there are the really "blue" notes, like just a little bit sharp of the minor third. For example, in the grand ol' key of E, if you bend the G note just a little bit, you get that famous blues note that we all love.

A good way to learn some accurate bends is to do a unison bend, or bend a note up on the G string while you're holding a note on the B string until they are the same pitch. That will quickly give you an idea of how far you have to push to get there.

Early on, someone showed me a trick I still use a lot, and that is to pre-bend a note, like up a whole step, then strike it and relax the note back down to it's normal pitch. That's a great one in my book. I use it a lot to start a lead.

[steve]

Bending notes sorts the men from the boys in my opinion. I know that because for years, mine sounded ropey- never quite right and no sustain, vibrato and I'd be a microtone sharp or flat. I like to think that I have it right these days but on odd occasions, if I listen to a live recording, I am very critical of the bent notes.

Also, a pre bend technique is important -where the string is bent before it is struck so that you come in on the bent note. Can be very effective when you release it.

[dadfad]

Jan 29, 2013 15:58:27 GMT -5 steve said:

....Also, a pre bend technique is important -where the string is bent before it is struck so that you come in on the bent note. Can be very effective when you release it.

Very true. I think playing from a pre-bent is often much more exacting than playing a bent-to. On a pre-bent you start off with no tonal reference point until you pick the already bent string, relying on luck (and of course skill) that it'll be where you want it. On a bend-to you at least have the start-note to listen to until you hit that "sweet-spot" of the bent note.

While country-music isn't necessarily my "thing" I met a guitarist awhile back who was extremely good playing double-stops with bends and from pre-bends for that pedal-steel guitar sound. I'd heard it done before, usually with a B-bender on the guitar, but he didn't use one and his pre-bent notes were always dead on (as were his bent-to notes).

[Admin]

You know, after all these years I can honestly say I've never tried bending down. didn't even occur to me that you could pre-bend before plucking and then bend down. I can see how that would be a great sound.

Dayum, just wish I could get my fingers to work again to see if I can do it. I'm sure it takes a lot of practice to know how far to pre-bend.

[slapjaw]

What I do is use a tuner. This way I can hear and see the note. Once I get it, I kind of know how far I have to bend the note. Each guitar is different, so you have to have a feel for it.

[saguitar]

That's probably my favorite trick, to start with a bent note and let it relax into a note below that. Of course, you can't know that you've got it bent perfectly to the right pitch without playing it first, so to eliminate the possible glitch of playing a note too sharp, or flat, I will often use a volume swell at the same time, so you don't hear the initial picked note, but just a descending note that seems to come out of nowhere.

Actually, now that I think about it, that's not my favorite trick, Jeff Beck does it all the time. But he's a wizard, y'know.