Bending
Bending is a technique used to increase the pitch of a note by increasing the string tension. It involves pushing or pulling a resonating string towards the sides of the fretboard while maintaining contact with the fret, sliding the string against the fret.
Bending is represented in tab by the letters b, h, and r, which stand for bend, hold, and release.
--5--b7--h7--r5-- r r r r
The following is a bit confusing to follow via tab. Notice every note is fretted using the ring finger. The '7' indicates the pitch of the bend, not the fret to hold. In this case, you'd bend the 5th fret note up to the normal (unbent) pitch of the 7th fret. The 'h' before the next 7 indicates to hold the bend. So you'd just pick the held bend. The 'r' before the 5 indicates you are releasing the bend into this note. In other words, you will pitch shift downwards into this note.
Note that h can mean hold bend or hammer-on. What it means has to be deciphered via context. Sometimes to avoid confusion, = is used on any line where a bend is being held. The above example would be:
--5--b7==7==r5--
Contents
PreReqs
Half, Whole, and Other Bends
The two most common kinds of bends are half-bends and whole-bends. A half bend raises the pitch one half-step; a whole bend raises it one whole-step. Pretty simple, right? Beyond that there are as you'd expect: 1 1/2 bends, double bends, and 2 1/2 bends. Anything beyond 1 1/2 bends are pretty rare, and even 1 1/2 is rare compared to whole and half bends.
A special case is the 1/4 bend. This is common in blues playing - it bends the note halfway between the current note and the note one half-step higher. Since this pitch isn't inside the chromatic scale and playable on the guitar without bending, it's difficult to practice bending the note to exactly the right pitch. But generally, it's not worth worrying about - a 1/4 bend is almost never sustained but used to lead into another note. You start the bend a little late in the note duration and switch to the next note before actually reaching the 1/4 step pitch.
Pain
The first thing a beginner may notice is that bending hurts. Yeah, that's going to happen. A beginner usually doesn't have strong calusses on his finger-tips yet. Simply fretting the thinner strings may irritate the skin. The additional tension of a bend will surely hit some nerves. Just keep at it - within a short amount of time, your finger tips will toughen up, and you won't feel any pain at all.
That said, if the strings are cutting your fingers to the point of bleeding, you should stop playing. Let your fingers heal before trying to play again, and don't push yourself to the point of injury. If that means only doing 1/4 or half bends for now, stick to that. You'll notice your finger tips get harder and less sensitive over time. It's good to test your boundaries but not to purposefully exceed to the point of injury.
Bend Up or Down?
Should you bend the string up towards the sky or down towards the ground? To some degree you will have to master both ways. The high and low E strings are too close to the edge of the fretboard to perform even a simple half-bend in that direction. So you're going to have to bend the high E (1st string) upwards and the low E (6th string) downwards. Otherwise, it's whatever is most comfortable to you. I find both ways about equally comfortable.
Some techniques, such as double-stops often bend one of the strings. If you are bending the bass string, you will need to bend upwards to avoid accidentally muting or otherwise interfering with the treble string note. And vice versa.
So practice both ways.
Adjacent Strings
You'll notice that your bend causes your fingers to come into contact with the adjacent string(s) to the one you are bending. This is fine. It only becomes a problem if you are accidentally fretting those strings and causing them to sound a pitch or they are making too much noise.
Generally, when you bend upwards, your finger begins to straighten, and the finger tip is rotating in a way that will pull the adjacent strings away from the fretboard. When you bend downwards, the opposite happens - your finger curls and hooks onto and pulls the adjacent string away from the fret. Pushing/pulling the adjacent string away is not necessary - it only suffices that you don't let the string(s) slide down your finger tip to the same point where your finger is fretting the bent string. Pushing them parallel to the fretboard is fine.
If your action is very low, it may be difficult to prevent the adjacent string(s) from sliding down your finger tip and getting fretted. You may find you have to bend upwards vs. downwards (pull vs. push), or you have to work on your technique to compensate for this. If your action is very high, you may find your fingers slide completely underneath adjacent strings. So long as they aren't rubbing your fingers in a way that hurts or damages your skin, that's fine. Just make sure they don't hook onto your fingernails, because when finish the bend, it's very likely that the adjacent string(s) will pop off your nail and sound, just like if you plucked it.
Another thing to notice is that for big bends towards the middle of the fretboard, you may start pushing on 2 or more adjacent strings. For example, doing a double bend on the B string at the 12th fret might push into the G and D strings. This will add increased tension to the bend making it more difficult. I don't find this is a serious problem - you just have to push harder. If you find it a problem, you should try to develop a technique where you can force your fretting finger(s) under those strings, so that you don't have to push them (as much).
Reinforcement from Other Fingers
When bending with the middle, ring, and pinky fingers, you can use other fingers on that hand to help push the string, making sure you bend it all the way to the desired pitch. This really comes in handy for bends above a whole step. I use it on all my bends. Not only will it give you the extra strength necessary to do so as a beginner, but it will increase your control as a intermediate or pro player. For example, usually if I have to bend a note that I'm fretting with my pinky, I'll also use my ring finger to assist the pinky. Since you can fret any fret behind the one you are playing without any impact on the pitch, I usually fret whatever fret I'm in the position to fret with that finger. So if I'm bending the 10th fret with my pinky, I'm fretting the 9th fret with my ring finger and sliding the string towards the side of the fretboard with both my ring and pinky fingers.
Notice this is not possible with the index finger - those are the hardest (and rarest) bends.
Good Technique
Destination Pitch
A bend won't sound good if it ends on the wrong pitch.
--7--6-b7--- --8--6-b8--- --12-9-b12-- --16-12b16--
Here's three simple exercises to practice bending. You play the desitation note, then play a note under it and bend to it. Make sure you are bending to the pitch, not below or above. These examples use half, whole, and 1 1/2 bends. Move these exercises all over the fretboard and all strings to practice. You'll notice the string needs to be bent further towards the 12th fret - the middle of the string.
Once you feel confident, try the exercise in reverse. Bend the note to where you think you've hit bent a half, whole, or 1 1/2 steps, then play the fretted note that corresponds to that pitch to make sure it's correct.
Bend Control - Speed/Timing
The other important thing about a bend is the degree of control you have over the bend speed and timing. A beginner will usually start the bend immediately, and proceed quickly to the target pitch. The bend isn't interesting at all - it sounds not much different than a slide or hammer-on. Good technique knows how to play with the tension and excitement of a bend - how long to sustain before bending, how quickly to bend, whether the bend should start slow and ramp up or start fast and slow down. See this slowed down Another Brick in the Wall solo for a good example of bend control. The performer knows when to start bending, how quickly the bend should raise and lower pitch, and how long to sustain the bent note.
1 2 b--8------b10--
Here's a little 2-beat exercise to practice. The tab doesn't tell you exactly how to play this. If it's tab of an existing song, try listening to the song for guidance. But if you don't know, you get to interpret. Let's list how you could play this:
- Sustain the initial G on the 8th fret until right before the 2nd beat. Quickly bend the note so you reach the A on the 2nd beat.
- Start bending as soon as you hit the initial G. Bend up at a constant speed, reaching the A on the 2nd beat.
- Start bending as soon as you hit the initial G, but start the bend very slow so you're not moving off the G but making it slightly sharp. Halfway through the beat start speeding up the bend, reaching the A on the 2nd beat.
- Start bending as soon as you hit the initial G, but start the bend very slow so you're not moving off the G but making it slightly sharp. 3/4 through the beat start speeding up the bend heavily, reaching the A on the 2nd beat.
- Start bending as soon as you hit the initial G, fast enough so that you'll get to the A about 3/4 way through the beat. Halfway through the beat start slowing down the bend, reaching the A on the 2nd beat.
- Start bending as soon as you hit the initial G, fast enough so that you'll get to the A about 1/2 way through the beat. 1/4 way through the beat start slowing down the bend, reaching the A on the 2nd beat.
Try all of those out. The key is to be able to bend slow and fast, and be able to change speed inside a single bend.
Reverse Bends
It is possible to use bending technique to perform a "reverse" bend where the pitch is lowered throughout the bend. This is accomplished by bending the string before picking it. Thus, your initial bend is silent. Once bent to the appropriate pitch, pluck the string so it sounds, then decrease the bend at the desired speed. If done correctly, it sounds simply like the note is lowering its pitch.
There are a couple key points that must be done correctly for the technique to sound right:
- The initial bend must be silent
- The raised pitch note must be played on the correct beat. This means the initial bend must occur before this point.
- A bent string is slightly out of the normal position for the picking hand - be sure to take this into account.
Why Bend?
Bending allows you to traverse all the frequencies "between" frets. This is yet another way to get from one note to the next, so it's useful to add contrast or emphasis.
You can hear the pattern of dissonance and harmony against other notes that are constant in frequency. So if I bend from C to D while a D is playing at the same time, you first hear the slight dissonance of the dominant 7th interval, which changes to a very dissonant sound as the note approaches and moves through the major 7th interval, then a wobbling/detuned effect as the note approaches D, and finally the notes converge and sound fully harmonic. It's almost like the note is gravitating towards harmony or is struggling to reach where he wants to be.
Bends work by changing string tension, which can also slightly change the timbre of the sound. This makes bends sound more distinguished, than if you simply played the beginning and end note.
The bend itself seems to tell a story - all the movement from one pitch to the next has more content than simply playing two notes.
Tuning
Bending puts more tension on the strings, which causes them to stretch. You'll often notice after a session of bending on a certain string that it is now a bit flat and out-of-tune. You can reduce this by thoroughly breaking-in a set of new strings, by bending them heavily at multiple points on the fretboard. This will stretch them out and help them develop more elasticity. However, there is no perfectly elastic string - heavy bending will cause the string to go out-of-tune. For live situations, you should try not to bend one string much more than the others - spread the love. And maybe back away from extreme bends.
You can learn to tune on the fly, using a tuner that is always on. After a heavy bend, take a look at it when you are sustaining a fretted note. If it says you are flat, give the tuning peg a small, quick turn. If you get good at this, you can tune during the middle of a solo!
Also, thinner strings require less tension to tune to pitch. This means bends don't put as extreme of an amount of tension on such strings, and they may stay in-tune better for heavy bending.
The only other solution I know of is to get an Evertune bridge, which detects and manipulates the tension of each string to keep it in-tune.