Bending Notes
The use of bent notes is one of the great sounds of lead guitar playing. Bending between notes originally came from the Blues, where players were imitating the sound of a human voice. The technique is now used in almost every style of guitar playing. A bend is achieved by "pushing" a string with the left hand fingers across the fretboard towards the adjacent strings. This causes the note to rise in pitch. Notes are most commonly bent one tone (2 frets in pitch) or one semitone (1 fret). The examples below use the third finger to bend the notes. You will find bending easier if the second finger also helps "push up" (bend) the string. The bend is indicated in tablature by a curved arrow (see ex. 1 of CD2 below) and the letter "B" above it. In music notation a slur is used to connect the bent notes, so you will need to refer to the letter B above the tab.
In the following example, the C note on the 5th fret of the 3rd string is bent up a tone to a note equivalent to the D note on the 7th fret. Experience and practice will help you bend to the correct pitch. If you use reasonably light gauge strings on your guitar, bending will be easier.
A descending slide.
Play note on 5th fret, 3rd string.
Third finger bends string upwards with help of the second finger.
The common notes to bend within pattern 1 extension are shown in the following example. The example given uses notes from pattern 1 at the 5th position and the diagram also highlights which direction to bend each note. When improvising, you should bend from and to a note in the pattern.
Licks Using Bends
This lick uses a technique of barring and rolling the first finger across the fret. Practice this slowly until you can do it easily.
The Release Bend
A release bend is achieved by bending the string before picking the note, then releasing the string back to its original pitch. The letter "R" is placed above the tab along with a downward curved arrow to indicate a release bend.
A descending slide.
Bend to note on 7th fret of 3rd string.
After note is played, release string to normal position, i.e. 5th fret of the 3rd string.
Licks Using Release Bends
The Quick Bend
As with hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides, the bend can also be played as a grace note.
This lick uses a quick bend from D to E on the third string, followed by a slow release bend back to D.
In this example the bend is held while the second note is played. The example alternates between a bent E note on the third string and an E note on the second string 5th fret. Both notes are the same pitch. The process is then repeated on the second and firs strings between two A notes of the same pitch.
This time the E note on the 2nd string is played at the same time as the bend on the 3rd string.
In this example the first finger bars the first and second strings while the bend is played.
This lick shows some of the typical sounds created by the use of these techniques.
Here is a new lead guitar solo "Bending the Blues", which uses lots of note bending. It also contains hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides, and involves the technique of barring the strings with the first finger. Once again, all the notes come from pattern 1 and pattern 1 extension. The timing of this solo is based on the shuffle rhythm and it contains both eighth note triplets and quarter note triplets.
