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Learn to play blues guitar.

Bending Strings: How To Bend Guitar Strings – LEG032

Description

I thought I’d put together a demo on how to bend strings when playing. Bending guitar strings is something that a lot of people struggle with because there isn’t a very precise science to it, like there is when fretting notes. When you’re bending the string, you’re essentially pushing the string up so that the current notes bends to a higher note. The problem that people run into is knowing exactly how far to push the string. Unfortunately this is where your sense of pitch comes into play, you’ll need to be able to accurately hear the pitch to know if you’re bending the string the right amount.

The two most common string bends are the whole note bend and the half note bend. With the whole note bend, you’re bending the string the equivalence of 2 frets on the guitar, the half note bend is the equivalence of only 1 fret on the guitar. The video below give a pretty good explanation of whole note and half note bends and also gives you some good practice advice.

How to Bend Guitar Strings

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Comments

  1. sandpmove says

    Hey Brian! Thanks a bunch for this lessons. Very helpful to those trying to “undo” old/bad habits 🙂 How do you prevent other strings from ringing? Ex - In the example you demonstrated, my G string keep ringing on the return bend. Any tips to prevent this from happening?

  3. Andy K says

    Brian,

    Thanks so much for the free lessons and most of all inspiration.  I have been a struggling player for several years and your lessons are not only easy to follow but get me playing something that sounds like music right off the go.

  5. ThOliverGuo says

    Hi Brian, i have a question. Why everytime I’m trying to bend the string, it is very hard to push it and my fingers always go under the string beside it? Is there any way to solve this?

  6. Barry1951 says

    @ThOliverGuo - first of all I’ll assume you’re on an electric guitar?  If not, it’s really difficult to do full bends with an acoustic.  That said, your fingers will slide the other string out the way - and so your finger might slip slightly underneath the string that you’re pushing - that happens to me too… If you want, I was going to be on Google+ Hangouts later this evening and you can join me with your webcam and I can take a look - and show you how I do it?  If you’re interested just let me know.

  8. foshan says

    Hi Brian Thanks for the tutorial. However i have the same problem as above but sometimes my finger goes right under the next string so that it is basically on top of my finger.Do you think my guitar needs a set u so that the strings sit a bit lower is do you think it’s bad technique and a bit more practise.

  9. Brian says

    foshan, that’s somewhat normal for the string that you’re bending towards to be touching your finger… just try adjusting the angle of your hand / fingers so that the string you’re hitting doesn’t go above your finger.  That shouldn’t happen.  Your finger shouldn’t go underneath the next string.. but it should touch it and even push on it.

  14. Gtarman says

    Another reason for developing that “finger memory” to learn how far to bend, in order to get to the desired note, is that sometimes it’s desirable - and a cool effect when used sparingly - to pre-bend a string. That means that you bend up without playing that string, but rather pick it as you release the bent string back down. When I was learning how to bend to hit proper pitch, I found it helpful to record myself.

    At first I discovered on playback that I was consistently a bit flat, even though when I was actually doing it, it sounded OK to me. It helped me to fine tune (no pun intended) my finger memory.

  16. tkjtkj says

    Can you define ‘ringing’???
    do you mean ‘buzzing’??’
    “Ringing can relate to harmonic
    ‘interference’ .. while ‘buzzing’is often
    related to ‘action’ … ie, distance between string and fret <nominally decided to be about 0.010 inches ..
    See: john coruthers … ‘how to setup a guitar’

  17. Gtarman says

    tkjtkj: Bending is always easier with lighter strings, as is learning to play, in general.

    Heavy gauge strings (and excessive string height) is a the reason a lot of people give up learning to play guitar - especially when learning to play the F chord cleanly, or “graduating” to barre chords. With heavy strings it can be quite challenging, frustrating and painful, and only the most dedicated and determined will put up with the pain (and sometimes bleeding fingers), as I did when I learned to play on an inferior no-name acoustic guitar, a few decades ago, with heavy strings and very high action. I don’t recommend it, but the upside for me was, when I finally got an electric with light gauge strings, I just simply flew across that fingerboard and I actually over-bent the strings because my finger pressure memory was causing me to bend the strings as hard as it did with heavy gauger and poor action.

    I had to retrain myself not to push down so hard on the strings (which causes the notes to go sharp - especially so with jumbo frets) and to also rely more on pitch rather than pressure to bend up to a desired note.

  18. Gtarman says

    You’re correct that “buzzing"is often related to poor action - often string height - and also by pushing the string down too far back from a fret. A string should be pushed as closed to the desired fret as is possible without muting it (unless that’s the desired result).

    “Ringing”, is allowing a string to remain to sound or “ring” while one or more other notes are played to create a fuller or a more jangly sound. For example, when you strum a basic or “open” C chord, the fingers are placed on the the following notes: C (5th string, 3rd fret); E (4th string, 2nd fret); C (2nd string, 1st fret). However when you strum that full chord you also include the 6th string, 3rd string and 1st string which ring as open strings to get that full sound. Those open ringing strings are the low E, G and high E because they are all included in the three notes that comprise the C chord, which are C,E,G. Thus, harmonically they fit and complement the sound.

    Likewise with lead or solo playing, sometime you allow a complementary note - or notes- to ring while picking others to create a more jangly affect.

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