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