Technique: Bending Strings (Guitar Lesson IM-144) How to play IF Stage 4

Justin's Completely Free, Intermediate Guitar Course Lesson IM-144.
Stage 4, Lesson 4.

This guitar lesson is an in depth look at the technique of string bending, exact hand positions and exercises to get them in tune!

Find the related course notes on the following link:
http://justinguitar.com/en/IM-144-StringBending.php

This is part of Justin's Intermediate Guitar Method, Foundation. A series of lessons available free online!

http://justinguitar.com/en/IM-000-IntermediateMethod.php

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

Full support at the justinguitar web site where you will find hundreds of lessons on a wide range of subjects, and all the scales and chords that you will ever need! There is a great forum too to get help, no matter what the problem.

And it is all totally free, no bull. No sample lessons, no memberships, no free ebook. Just tons of great lessons :)

To get help with this lesson (and for further info and tabs), find the Lesson ID in the video title (like ST-667 or whatever) and then look it up on the Lesson Index page of justinguitar.com

http://www.justinguitar.com

Have fun :)

.

Hi, How are you doing?

Justin here.

Welcome to IM-144.

In which we are going
to be checking out String Bending.

Now, String Bending is
a very very cool technique

used a lot in Rock, and also Blues

but it's unfortunately
an electric guitar only technique.

Those of you who only have an acoustic guitar,

please feel free to watch the video

and maybe try doing it

but you will probably find it very difficult

and I don't want you to hurt your hands.

So maybe you might want to
leave this lesson

until you have an electric guitar.

The most important thing
when you learn String Bending

is making sure
that you get your technique right.

Many people start trying
to do String Bending

by using their fingers

and that just doesn't work.

You really have to use your
"Wrist" and your "Arm."

So, let's get into a close up

and I will go ahead and show you

exactly how
to perform this technique.

The first note we are going
to be bending

is the note D.

So, I would like you
to start by putting your

Third Finger down in the Seventh Fret,
of the Third String.

Now, the first rule of String Bending
is that you

always use more than
one finger, where possible.

So, your Third Finger is down here.

That's the one that's going
to be dong the String Bending.

So we are going to support that one,
with the Second Finger

back behind it, in the Sixth Fret.

It doesn't really matter where
in the fret it goes.

It can go right up the the fret,

even if it snuck into the Seventh Fret

that wouldn't be too bad.

But, try and keep it back
in the Sixth Fret, if you can.

Now the second rule is that

you are going to
be using your "Hand and "Arm"

and not your fingers.

Now this is really important.

It's probably the most common mistake
that people make when they

are learning to do String Bending.

So, what you are not going to do is:

do not keep
your fingers square to the fret,

while trying to push up,

like this.

It's really difficult.

Difficult to hold, difficult to control

and it is generally just bad.

So, don't do that.

The whole idea here,

what you should be doing
is using your "Wrist"

to create the Bend.

You can see that
my fingers are actually "locked"

And that I'm using the motion of
my Arm and Wrist

to push the string up.

And this is the motion.

Now what you will
most likely find is that

it is very awkward to start off with,

to try and get
this Wrist movement happening.

And for a little while
you will be struggling

and you will be going like this

moving your fingers
and trying to figure it out.

You will grip it incorrectly

but then one day you will do it

and it will be really easy.

And when you get that one,
and it's really easy,

you will know that you are doing it right.

Because it's always that feeling.

Now, probably the easiest way
to think of it

is that if you hold your hand out -

you can see that my fingers are
now pointing toward the camera -

if I just, now press my palm,

up against the neck,

similar to pivoting it.

Pivoting here,

where the edge of First Finger,

actually touching on the neck.

And when you are doing
your String Bending

you will find that part
of your finger, right where it joins the hand,

will be actually touching the guitar neck

because that is your pivot point.

Now you can see,

if I fold my hand,

it looks like a "L" shape.

Then I put it in the same place.

If I make the same movement

you can see that the fingers
seem to be pushing across the strings.

Now, of coarse,

it really doesn't look like that

when you are doing bending

but that's just to give you the idea.

The idea of levering against here.

Against that part of
the guitar neck.

That's the movement that
you are after.

And you will find that when
you get that,

bending becomes really simple.

So, let's go back.

Put your Third Finger and Second Finger
in the Seventh Fret and Sixth Fret, respectively

and try pushing up.

You might even want to

put your First Finger down
in the Fifth Fret as well.

But see if you can get that feeling,
of your arm doing it.

The fingers you can see are locked into place.

They are not moving at all.

They are solid.

It wouldn't matter how I move my hand,

my fingers should stay the same.

And once holding the guitar neck,

That's how they move.

It's this motion here.

It does take a little bit of practise.

Don't worry if you don't get it
correct immediately.

Just see if you
can keep doing that motion

and when you find it getting easy

you will probably know
that you are doing it correct.

Now, the next really important rule - number three:

It is, "Know where you are bending to,"

because in String Bending,
it is possible to play really horrible

after two notes.

So what we are going to start off doing,
is learning a little exercise

to help you get your "bends" in-tune.

So what were are going to start of with is
playing this note at the

Seventh Fret,
Third String, with our Third Finger.

. . .

Then we are going to move our hand up one fret

and play the Eight Fret
of the same string.

. . .

Then we are going to move back
to the Seventh Fret

and play it again

. . .

And then try and bend it to the sound,

to the pitch of that note at the Eight Fret

. . .

So again we go

Seventh Fret

. . .

Eight Fret

. . .

Seventh Fret

. . .

Bend

. . .

Now, don't be putting
any vibrato on as yet.

Just try and get your bend
to the accurate pitch.

It should feel quite easy.

It's only a semi-tone bend.

You could probably do it
with your fingers the wrong way

and get away with it.

But it should feel extremely easy
if you are doing the technique correctly.

Let's go again:

Seventh Fret

. . .

Eight Fret

. . .

Seventh Fret

. . .

Bend

. . .

So it's a little four note sequence.

. . .

. . .

Now, you want to
practise that a little bit first.

This is called a Semi-Tone Bend

Because we are just bending one fret.

. . .

But we can also bend a whole tone,
which is two frets.

In which case we would play the

Seventh Fret

. . .

Ninth Fret

. . .

back to the
Seventh Fret

. . .

and bend a tone

. . .

. . .

Like I said, "Absolutely no vibrato."

Make sure that you get the bend
really nicely in-tuned.

. . .

Now, once you feel comfortable with that,
the Semi-Tone

. . .

and the Tone.

. . .

Then you might want to try it
on the Second String.

Same frets as before are acceptable.

. . .

. . .

and then a Tone

. . .

And then finally on the thinnest string

. . .

. . .

and a Tone

. . .

. . .

Some of you may have noticed

that all of the bends
I was doing

were going up

and you've never heard them
come down.

And the reason for all that is

I was muting all
of the strings with, my picking hand.

So, as soon as I performed the bend

(plays)

The picking hand touches the strings

then I release the bend.

That way you avoid
the "Seagull Effect".

for example (plays)

Sometimes it sounds "cool",
but most times it is not desirable .

So, try and get into the habit of
when you are doing

your bending practice,

that you go (plays)

. . .

with this hand

Mute

Relax the bend,
then you can move to the next note.

. . .

Here touches the strings.

It's the outside of the palm

here

that does the string dampening

just to ensure that the
note sounds properly

. . .

stop, and relax

Otherwise, you get (plays)

And often that sound (plays)
doesn't really sound cool.

It can be used to good effect later on

but it's not probably something
that you would want to start off learning.

Make sure that you
grasps the Palm Muting

because it will really make
your bends sound a lot better.

Now, as well as getting
your technique right,

the other really important thing is

making sure that you, "bend the right note"

So what I want to do now is go through
the Minor Pentatonic Scale

and the Blues Hybrid Scale

and show you which are
the "cool" notes to bend, and why.

So we are just going to be looking
at the thinnest three strings.

Because they are the ones
that we most commonly bend on.

It is possible to bend
on these thicker ones

but it's not what you want
to start off with.

So, starting off we have
the A Minor Pentatonic Scale

on the thinnest three strings,
and the Fifth Fret

. . .

Now, if we look at this
top note that we were playing

this is the note C.

And regularly,
you will probably find that

you are playing that
with your little finger.

. . .

But with String Bending,
we never ever do it with our little finger.

There are a couple of exceptions

but 99% of guitar players,
bend with their Third Finger.

It's a lot stronger.

The little finger is too short
and too weak

and doesn't give you a good bend.

So, get into the habit of using
your Third Finger for the bend.

Even if it means
that you have to re-finger the scale.

But you have already learned that,

"It is not important, what fingers play
the notes for the scale."

So we can use Third Finger (plays)

for all of those notes.

. . .

If you don't believe me,
check out Eric Clapton.

Watch some videos
of guitar players you like

and notice that

99 times out of 100,
they will be using their Third Finger for the bend.

Now, this top note here:

This note can be bent One Tone

which is Two Frets.

. . .

Now we haven't done the next scale pattern

but this note, D

is the next note is note in
the A Minor Pentatonic Scale

if we start moving up the neck.

So that's why this note
must be bent a Tone.

Bending a Semi-Tone to here:

This isn't a good scale note.
As it tends to sound sour.

So, if you are going to bend
the Eight Fret

Make sure you bend it One Tone.

It's worth practising.

. . .

. . .

Now also on the thinnest string;

you will remember from our Hybrid Scale

. . .

We've got here

the Seventh Fret.

Now the next note up in the scale

. . .

was the Eight Fret.

So what you want to
practise off the Seventh Fret

is a Semi-Tone bend.

It's a one step bend.

you would practise the following (plays)

. . .

So, for the Eight Fret,
it should be a Tone.

. . .

And for the Seventh Fret,
it should be a Semi-Tone.

. . .

Now, exactly the same thing happens
on the Second String

This note here:

The note G.

Bends up a Tone.

. . .

which is

(plays)

the same as that note actually.

. . .

So we have our Tone off the Eight Fret.

. . .

And then we've got a Semi-Tone off the Seventh Fret.

. . .

Because it's bending to that note

. . .

And it's exactly the same
on the Third String.

. . .

On the Third String,
it's just slightly different, in that

on the Seventh Fret,
we can bend a Tone

. . .

because it bends to this note

which is the note E.

. . .

You can hear that it's the same note.

E

(plays and hums)

You can even play them both at the
same time, if you like.

. . .

So, it's important from
the Seventh Fret on the Third String,

you can bend a Tone.

The difference is that you can also bend a Semi-Tone.

. . .

Because you've got the "Blue"

. . .

So here from the Seventh Fret
you can bend a Tone

or a Semi-Tone.

So you should practice a Tone.

. . .

or a Semi-Tone.

. . .

Now what I would recommend
that you start doing is

exploring all of those bends
when you improvise.

If you put a backing track on,

just start to experiment with all of those
different things.

You've got the bend

. . .

Lot's of fun!

Practising your bending technique

and making sure that you've got
the technique exactly right

is very important.

But also very important

is listening to the original Blues Masters,
do their string bending

so you know what it is
that your string bending, should sound like.

Now, probably my favourite string bender
of all time is

Albert King

He's got a wonderful string bend.

He does them really slow,
and really fast.

Lots of vibrato; no vibrato.

So if you do not have any Albert King,

I would highly recommend that you get
either his album:

"King Albert" or "Born Under a Bad Sun"

Both of those albums have loads and loads of fantastic guitar playing

and are also a really good source of getting

traditional blues licks.

And listening to what
really good string bending sounds like.

So the first thing that you should be doing is practising the exercise:

So playing a note (plays)

Playing it a semi-tone higher (plays)

Back (plays)

and then doing the bend (plays)

That's to really help make sure that you get you pitching good -

that you are bending in-tune.

. . .

and a tone

. . .

So, practise that
on all three of the thinner strings.

That's exercise one.

It's really really important,

and it's one that you should
do for a little while until

you feel totally confident
that you've got your bending in-tune.

Once you've conquered that,

the next really important thing

is to actually put it into practise.

So, put a backing track on

and just jam along;
experimenting with your string bending.

You'll find that it brings a whole life
to your guitar playing

that you might not have discovered before.

When you are improvising,
it just gives something really expressive.

There's something magical about string bending once you get it

but it doesn't really have
that magical feeling

until you have gotten the technique correct.

So, plenty of practise on the technique.

Then plenty of practise using it

and I will see you for another lesson
some time really soon.

take care of yourself.

bye