Guitar Study
Welcome to Bending Boot Camp
Instructors: Richard Lundmark, Rick Graham
Total lessons in study:
Richard and Rick tackle the proper ways to execute bends on the guitar and also cover the various types of bending.
1. The Technical Side of Bending
Attention recruit! Welcome to the Bending Boot Camp, where I will break you down, and build you up with the necessary skills to make a bending SEAL out of you!
Jokes aside, this tutorial is aimed not throwing bending licks left and right at you, you will find plenty of those here at IG, in my tutorials, and others. rather,...Read More
So, the first thing we will be looking at is the actual ergonomics of bending, how we use our fingers when bending. The fingertip itself is the focal point when bending, upon which the strings will rest when bending. If you straighten your fingers too much when bending (especially if you suffer form moist hands) you will ru...Read More
In this part we discuss other things that affect bending on the guitar, namely Scale Length , and fret board Radius. Scale length means the length of the neck from the top nut to the bridge saddle. On a Fender type guitar, the length is usually 25.5', on a PRS 25', and on a Les Paul-type guitar 24,75'. A shorter scale ...Read More
String gauge, or the thickness of your strings, is yet another thing that affects bending. If tuned to the same pitch, a thicker string will have higher tension. That is, bending a 0.09 string will be much easier than bending a 0.11 string. 0.09 string are probably the most commonly used guitar string gauge, even though I h...Read More
2. Examples of Bending Types
Hey there and welcome to this tutorial on String Bending technique!
I personally feel that this particular technique is often neglected by guitarists even though it is something which can help your musicianship immeasurably. Approached in the right way, it can transform the way you approach phrasing and really help to impr...Read More
Ok, here we have three similar examples which start with a semi-tone bend followed by a tone bend. We will use A minor pentatonic for these examples. We will also be using the third finger for these bends so make sure to impliment the left hand positioning we discussed in the introduction video.
Make sure that you are in c...Read More
Let's take things a step further by doing a minor 3rd bend (3 frets). This does require a little more strength from the left hand and may require some work to get the intonation spot on.
Remember to play these examples with the target pitches so that you can hear the pitch that you will need to achieve with your string ben...Read More
With the following examples we will be performing the bends with the index finger and as a result we will not be able to use any idle fingers to help us to bend the string. This does present a challenge certainly if you have never tried this technique before so remember to use the wrist and not the finger to move the string...Read More
In this example we will be moving sequentially through the scale of A minor pentatonic but keeping it all within the confines of one string: the g string. Due to the nature of the pentatonic scale, we will be required to use a mixture of whole tone bends and minor third bends as discussed in the previous lesson.
What you c...Read More
This example is slightly different than the previous examples in that we will be required to sustain other notes whilst performing the string bends at the same time. We have a mixture of semi-tone and tone bends coupled with changes between the second and fourth fingers for the bends. This will undoubtably feel a little bit...Read More
This final example is a short but deceptively awkward lick to get right. The challenge is in targeting the correct successive pitch while releasing the string.
It will be essential for you to play the fretted target notes before you actually try the lick so that you can make a mental note of the correct pitches and remembe...Read More