Estimated reading time 3 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
After hammer-ons and pull-offs, string bending is probably the most frequently employed guitar technique. Along with vibrato, it has the unique ability to imitate the human voice, adding emotion and feeling to you playing. Keep reading to learn the secret of how to bend guitar strings.
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Learn the Secret of How to Bend Guitar Strings: What Is It?
What does the term mean?
According to the Essential Dictionary of Music it is:
A smooth change of pitch similar to a portamento or a glissando used on guitar, harmonicas and synthesizer, among other instruments. (20)
Guitar is a fixed pitch instrument - mostly.
- With fixed pitch instruments, tuning is not a part of playing the instrument. For example, xylophones and accordions get tuned in the factory and never get tuned again, and pianos only get tuned twice a year by a professional piano tune.
- Conversely, singers, violinists, woodwind and brass players all have the capacity to tune as they play. They are variable pitch instruments.
- Guitar is in between. Mostly, you tune the guitar before you play it and don’t touch the tuning machines as you perform. But when you string bend, you increase the tension of the string, which makes the pitch sound higher. However, you’re not just raising the pitch indiscriminately. You’re aiming for the next higher note. This means you need to train your ear to hear how high you should go.
Keep reading to learn how you train your ear for string bending.
Learn the Secret of How to Bend Guitar Strings: How Do I Do It?
Mobile users: for best results reading the music, rotate your screen 90o to the right.
Performing a whole step bend
- The number represents the fret where you place your finger. The upward swooping curved line represents the pitch going up.
- In the standard notation above, it shows the starting note is C and the destination note is D. This is called a full (or whole step) bend (thus the word “Full” in the musical notation). That means that the pitch is raised by about two frets.
- Therefore, to train your ear how high you should go, first pick the string and slide your finger from the 5th fret up to the 7th fret. When you perform a full bend, your note should sound the same as the note at the 7th fret.
- To make the string bend easier to execute, place your 3rd finger (see the hand diagram below) on the 5th fret and place either your 1st or 2nd fingers (or both) on the same string behind your 3rd finger (see the video below). This adds strength to the bend.
- Make sure you maintain pressure on your guitar’s neck as you simultaneously push the string toward the ceiling.
Performing a half step bend
- A half step bend also has an upward swooping line but has “1/2” instead of “Full”. This means that your pitch will only go up about a half-step (the equivalent of one fret).
- Slide your finger from fret 5 to fret 6 to create the sound model for the half step string bend.
- When performing the half step string bend, be sure to support your 3rd finger with the other fingers while maintaining pressure on the neck.
Hand Icon (churien.deviantart.com/art/hand-template-blank-272630198) by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Modified by Geoffrey Keith.
Learn the Secret of How to Bend Guitar Strings: Video
Be sure to watch for how he supports his 3rd finger with the other fingers.
Video: Demonstrating String Bends
Final Thoughts
Takeaway points:
- When you string bend, you increase the tension of the string, which makes the pitch sound higher.
- However, you’re not just raising the pitch indiscriminately. You’re aiming for the next higher note.
- Be sure to support finger #3 with the other fingers when string bending.
Have fun playing!
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