Guide to Guitar String Bending

Bending is something that many guitar players feel they can do. It's an integral part of a guitar's repertoire, and one that can't be ignored as far as creating interesting phrasing for melodies goes. And yet, you'll find many intermediate players learned the technique incorrectly or can't grasp on how accurate bends need to be.

Firstly, your bends need to be in tune. Out of tune bends can be really great sounding, but bending out of tune is easy and bending in tune is not. So first, learn to bend in tune. Do it slowly to build up strength in your fingers and use a tuner to make sure your pitch is dead on. Do every interval you can. Half step, whole step, whole and a half, two whole steps if you can muster it. Practice your pre-bends as well, they can be very difficult.

If your fingers don't have the strength or ache very easily, consider learning your bends on 8 gauge strings first and then jumping up to 9 or 10 gauge. Soon you'll feel no pain at all and will be able to bend with ease for long periods of time.

It's also important to know that bending a string is actually easier the closer you are to the middle of the string. It should go without saying, but bending an F to a G on the 1st fret of the 1st string is impossible no matter what gauge you use. So if you must bend to a G on the high E string, do it from the 13th fret.

One technique underutilized by many beginners are double string bends. There's two types of these. The first is playing two strings at the same time but bending only one of them. The other is actually bending two strings. Now, with both of these you have to pay attention to what notes are legal. For instance, bending into a D# and F# while the harmony implied is C major could be disastrous. So you won't be able to include this technique without a bit of thought beforehand.

This concludes our guide on string bending correctly. Remember, it's important to think before you bend. Always strive for complete control of your bends and you'll always be a master of phrasing melodies. One solo you may want to tackle to get total control of your bends is The Eagles ''Hotel California''. This song has every type of bend imaginable and by the time you master the solo you'll have it all under your fingers. Good luck!