Andy Timmons On Approaches To Expressive String Bending Techniques

Guitar World

Andy Timmons explores a topic that’s near and dear to his heart — using string-bending techniques and related phrasing approaches to craft emotionally expressive melodic lines.

Transcript

00:00Everybody, Andy Timmons here.

00:19Welcome back to Melodic Muse for Guitar World.

00:22And we're going to continue talking about a subject near and dear to my heart,

00:25and that is string bending.

00:26And maybe talk about a couple of my influences

00:29first before getting into some playing.

00:30And I recently got to go hang out with a dear friend of mine

00:33who also happens to be a hero, and that's Mr. Steve Lukather.

00:36And he came through town with Toto and Journey.

00:40They were playing at Double Bill, sold out at the arena

00:43here in Dallas, which is great.

00:45Having a sold out arena show with Greg Guitar Rock, it was very heartening.

00:48But had a wonderful hang with Luke that day.

00:50Went to see him that night.

00:52And again, he's literally, you know, I've

00:55got more from him than almost any other player, such a huge influence.

00:59But I hadn't seen him live, like, in an arena, you know, ever.

01:02So I'd seen him in some other places along the way.

01:05But, you know, tremendous player.

01:06But I was really blown away.

01:08I was moved so much.

01:09Every time he bent a note, it really just went straight inside me.

01:14And it was a recognition that, A, you know,

01:18I heard myself in his playing, because it's

01:20such a big part of how I approach the bends and how I find pitch.

01:25And he was so in the middle of that pitch

01:27that we talked about in the last lesson, finding the center of the pitch.

01:30And he's textbook for that.

01:31And I know that Larry Carlton was an influence on him.

01:33And he's another guy that I learned immense amounts from.

01:36That first Larry Carlton solo record with Room 335

01:39and some of his great early tunes.

01:42That whole record is everything you need to know about bending 101

01:47and beyond, honestly.

01:49So these two guys, big influences on me.

01:51Great to see Steve recently and just be so blown away.

01:54Brought me to tears.

01:55It really, truly did.

01:57And as I've talked about Jeff Beck before,

01:58seeing him and what he does with string bending, it's just mind-blowing.

02:01So let's continue the path here.

02:03Let's talk about some more techniques.

02:05And hopefully, we can improve all of our bending.

02:08OK, so now we're going to dig into bending through a scale.

02:12And we're going to start with C-sharp Dorian

02:14as it applies to the C-sharp minor blues we're

02:16going to get into here in a little bit.

02:17So let's hear the sound of that C-sharp Dorian all on the G string,

02:21because that's where we're going to be bending.

02:23So I'm going to start on the B. C-sharp, D-sharp, E, F-sharp, G-sharp.

02:31What do you want to call that?

02:32A-sharp, I suppose.

02:33B. C-sharp.

02:35So we want to get that sound in our head.

02:40Now, that's another practice I love anyway, is practicing scales horizontally.

02:48OK, now we're going to do a series of bends

02:51that are going to go from one note and bend up to the next scale note, OK?

02:56So if we're going to start on that same B on the fourth fret,

02:59I'm going to bend from that B to the C-sharp.

03:04Again, trying to find just the center of that pitch.

03:08No vibrato.

03:12A lot of strength coming from the two fingers behind, thumb behind the neck.

03:18Now, to the note that I just achieved with the bend,

03:20I'm going to fret that note and then bend up to the next scale note.

03:26OK, so we have, you could either re-articulate or just slide it.

03:34I do that a lot where I'll start the sequence and not pick another note.

03:37I'll just do it all by slides.

03:42Now, we've got this next bend is a half step because the next scale note

03:48is E from the D-sharp.

03:49So we have...

03:54So that's kind of new, what we're talking about.

03:55That's just a half step bend from D-sharp to E.

04:00One of my favorite bends is that where you can find a good half step.

04:04And this is usually where it is.

04:06It's in that when you've got a minor chord.

04:09The third, if you bend from the nine.

04:10Now, from that E, the next scale tone is a whole step.

04:23Bending from E to F-sharp.

04:26Next one is F-sharp to G-sharp.

04:29G-sharp, we're going to call it A-sharp.

04:32Always feels weird saying A-sharp because it's inharmonic with B-flat,

04:35but in this key, it is A-sharp.

04:37And A-sharp to B.

04:41If we want to complete the octave, B to C-sharp.

04:45So as an exercise, well, the way I would combine this, why I connected this.

04:52That's a nice way to do a release.

05:07Again, no vibrato at the end.

05:11Or maybe a little reward at the end.

05:18All right, so what goes up can come down.

05:20So let's do the whole thing in reverse.

05:23Let's start at the octave, where we start here on the G string.

05:27And we're going to go up to that, math is good, 16th fret on the B.

05:37So pay attention as you're going through this.

05:42The strength that it takes and the articulation that you're getting,

05:45not only from the bend, and it's the release.

05:50And then sliding into that next note, setting yourself up to where the next bend occurs.

05:58I'm getting as much volume out of...

06:03Then I'll re-articulate.

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