lead guitar techniques
Bending Strings 1
Bending strings is one of the techniques that make your guitar playing more expressive. By pushing a string up, or pulling down on it, you can raise the pitch of a note a little, a lot, or anything in between. There are several types of bends. Let’s take a look.
Half Step Bend
A half step bend raises the pitch of a note by one half step, or one fret — E to F, for example.
In the example above the E note is picked. Then the string is pushed up (toward the low E 6th string) until the pitch reaches an F note. Many players bend with their 3rd finger (some use both their 2nd and 3rd fingers together) to push up on the string. The same effect can also be accomplished by pulling down on the string. For most bending on the high strings you will want to push up so you don’t accidentally bend off the end of the fretboard. Pulling down (toward the ground) on strings to create bends seems to work better for slow bends on the low strings. Try both ways and feel the difference. A bend should last the duration of the first note in the bend. If the bend begins with an eighth note, it should take you one half of a beat to make the bend.
Try this half step bend exercise. You are going to be bending the A note up to a B flat note. It can be helpful to play the B flat note a couple of time before you begin to get the correct target pitch in your mind.
Half-Step Bend Exercise
Whole Step Bend
A whole step bend raises the pitch of a note by a whole step, or two frets — D to E, for example.
In the example above the D note is bent up to an E note — a whole step (the equivalent of 2 frets.) Pick the D string and then push up until you reach the pitch of the E note. This can be very difficult on an acoustic guitar, so don’t worry if you can’t quite get it on acoustic. Large bends like this are better suited for the lighter gauge strings on an electric guitar.
Here is a whole step bending exercise.
Whole Step Bend Exercise
Slight Bend
When you bend less than a 1/2 step, it is called a Slight bend. This is how a slight bend is notated.
