The guitar is one of the most expressive instruments you can play. And one of the main reasons is that you can bend notes. This give your melodies a very vocal quality. Let's take care of some of the issues that pop up with learning how to bend notes on your guitar.
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Bending a string on your guitar involves pushing towards the ceiling or pulling towards the floor the string to essentially stretch it and change its pitch. Generally you will push the top 3 strings and pull the bottom three. That just keeps you from running out of fretboard space.
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Tip #1 - Bend with more than one finger.
Let's start by trying a bend at the 12th fret of the 2nd string. That's a B. Bending with one finger is too difficult, so fret your note with your third finger. Now put your first and second finger on the string behind it. Push towards the ceiling with all three fingers, keeping perpendicular pressure into the fretboard so the string doesn't slip out.
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Tip #2 - Break the rules and flop that thumb over the top.
Yep, traditional playing technique says to keep your thumb in the back of the neck, roughly pointed toward the ceiling. But just like everything in music, there's an exception to every rule. With bending notes, you're going to use the leverage of pushing against your thumb to push or pull the string. Bring your thumb up over the top so it touches the bottom E string. Now grab that same note on your second string and try the bend again. Easier, right?
Don't push with your fingers. Get your fingers pretty locked in place and then rotate your wrist to the right and let it do the work to move your fingers.
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Tip #3 - Know what pitch your headed for.
One of the things that makes a pro guitarist differ from an amateur is the ability to target the pitch of string bends. Generally you will bend either a whole or half step. Let's start with the half. We're going to bend that same 12th fret of the 2nd string B. But first play a regular fretted note on the C at the 13th fret of that same string. That's the note you need to match for your bend. Now try bending the 12th fret B and stop when you hear it reach C. For a whole step bend, you would first get your reference pitch at the 14th fret (C#) and then bend the 12th fret B until it matches that C#.
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Question: Do I have to be stuck in this fascist half step/whole step pitch jail? Or can I bend larger and smaller intervals too?
Answer: I love a rebel... Yes, you can. You can bend a step and a half or larger. It's all up to your hand strength, targeting the pitch you want, and what your creative ear desires. You can go smaller also, with a quarter step bend. A quarter step would be the note in between B and C. We don't have a name for it, but it's a great note. Just do a little tiny bend that puts your pitch right between B and C. It's used all the time in the blues.
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Tip #4 - Try different types of bends.
You can bend your guitar strings in a zillion different ways, but here's some of the basics:
Instantaneous bend - Grab the note and push it up right away, so it "scoops" up into your target note.
Measured bend - Grab your note, but let it have it's second to shine before the bend. Create something like an eighth note rhythm between the unbent and bent notes.
Bend and Release - Bend the note up and then, keeping that pressure on, unbend the string back to it's normal pitch. You'll hear the note go up and then down.
Ghost Bend - One of my faves... Bend the string first (before picking it). Then pick the string and, keeping the pressure on, release the bend back down. You'll get this great "crying" sound out of it.
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From there, you can start experimenting with your bends. Maybe do a ghost bend up a whole step, release it back just a half step, then push it back up to the whole step again. There's tons of different ways to mold and shape your notes this way. And it will make your lead playing sound lots more interesting!
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