Guitar Lesson Nine - Technique
Left Hand:
With all the practicing that you have been doing your hands should be getting strong enough to begin learning the whole-step bend.
Before we get started, go back and review the principles laid out in lesson 5.
The only difference between the half-step bend and the whole-step bend is that you are bending the string up the equivalent of two frets instead of one. This requires quite a bit more strength and control to insure that your pitch is accurate. As I stated before, nothing will make you sound like an amateur as quickly as an out-of-tune bend.
Get it right!
The best way to practice bending in tune is to start by playing the note that you are bending the string up to so that the pitch is fresh in your mind. Then drop down either a half-step or a whole-step, pick that note and slowly bend the string until you arrive at the pitch of the first note. Then check your accuracy by playing the actual note again.
The biggest mistake you can make when learning how to bend a string is to bend too fast. You've got to work slowly and listen to the pitch of the note as you bend. That bend needs to go somewhere. It's up to you to control where it's going.
String Bending Guidelines
There are really no rules involved in string bending, except that you need to learn how to use them to help you communicate your musical ideas. So, what I'm going to do is give you some examples of the various ways in which you can utilize string bends to add flavor to your playing and let you take things from there.
The most common bend uses only notes from within the scale. You start on a note within the scale and you bend that note up to another note within the scale.
AMaj:
Listen to it (140kb MP3)
Amin:
Listen to it (212kb MP3)
Bending from a note within the scale to a note outside of the scale can have a nice effect if used in the right place.
AMaj:
Listen to it (203kb MP3)
Amin:
Listen to it (227kb MP3)
Bending from a note outside of the scale to a note within the scale can also work well in certain circumstances.
AMaj:
Listen to it (163kb MP3)
Amin:
Listen to it (319kb MP3)
Knowing when and where to bend the strings is really a matter of "feel". You have to do a lot of experimenting to develop your own style. Every guitarist has their own approach. That's what makes them sound unique.
Here are a couple of sound files for you to work with:
This lesson is divided into five parts
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