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The guitar is
probably one of the most expressive musical instruments on the
planet, and the reason that there are so many guitarists. One of
the reasons that the guitar is so expressive is that you can
bend notes. Bending notes adds a vocal quality to your guitar
playing that is unlike many other instruments. In this article
we will take a look at some of the problems that come up when
learning how to bend strings.
Bending strings on your guitar is a matter of either pulling the
strings down or pushing them up, in so doing you are stretching
the strings in order to change there pitch. Normally you push up
on the top three string of your guitar and pull down on the
bottom three strings, so that you avoid running out of room on
the fretboard.
1. Bending strings by using more then one finger.
Start by trying to bend the B string on your guitar at the 12th
fret. Bending the string with one finger can be difficult, so
place your third finger on the 12th fret B string now place your
first and second finger on the B string behind your third finger
and bend it up using all three of your fingers, keep your
fingers at a 90 degree angle to the fretboard and apply an even
amount of pressure with all three fingers to prevent the string
from slipping out.
2. Place your thumb over the top of the guitar neck.
As a general rule guitarists are usually taught to keep their
thumb on the back of the neck and pointer slightly towards the
ceiling, but there are times when rules are meant to be broken.
It is much easier to bend notes when you use your thumb to give
you a bit more strength Place your thumb over the top of neck so
that it touches the low E string, and push that same note up on
your B string 12th fret it should feel a lot easier this time.
Do not push on the string with you fingers instead lock your
fingers in place and rotate your wrist, let you wrist do the
work.
3. Know which note you are bending to.
The difference between an accomplished guitarist and an ordinary
guitarist is the skill to hit the correct note when bending
strings. Normally you will be bending a note up either a whole
or half step, some great blues guitarists bend strings up by as
much as two whole steps. We will start with the half step. We
are going to bend the same note up as before, but first star by
playing a C note on the B sting 13th fret that’s is the same
note we want to hit when we bend the note on the 12th fret B
string. Now try bending the note at the 12th fret and stop when
you hit the C note.
To do a whole step bend first get your reference note by playing
a C# at the 14th fret and then bend the B string 12th fret up
until you can hear the C# note. If you are just starting out
using an electric guitar tuner can be very helpful.
A question that I am frequently asked is, am I restricted to
half and whole steps string bending, or can I bend larger and
smaller intervals also? The answer is yes, you can bend notes
any were from a half of an interval, and up to two full
intervals it all depends on your strength. You can also bend a
note by one quarter of an interval. A quarter of an interval
would be the note between B and C there is no name for it, but
it is a great sounding note and is used in blues music all the
time.
4.Try different methods of string bending.
There dozens of different ways that you can bend strings. Here
are some of the basic ways that you can bend strings.
A) You can bend the string so that it hits your target note
instantly.
B) Play your note and let it ring for a second and then bend it.
C) Bend a note up in pitch and then release it back to its
original pitch. Make sure that you can hear the note go up
in
pitch and then back down.
D) Bend the note up in pitch before you pick it, pick the note and then release the bent note back down.
From here you can begin experimenting with your bends. There are
a lot of different ways that you can bend strings to add
interest to your guitar playing.
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