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