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

00:00Hey everybody, Andy Timmons here. Welcome back to Melodic Muse for Guitar World. And we're

00:22going to continue talking about a subject near and dear unto my heart, and that is string bending.

00:26And maybe talk about a couple of my influences first before getting into some playing.

00:30And I recently got to go hang out with a dear friend of mine who also happens to be a hero,

00:34and that's Mr. Steve Lukather. And he came through town with Toto and Journey. They were playing a

00:41double bill, sold out at the arena here in Dallas, which is great. Having a sold out arena show with

00:46great guitar rock, it was very heartening. But had a wonderful hang with Luke that day, went to see

00:51him that night. And again, he's literally, you know, I've got more from him than almost any other

00:56player. Such a huge influence. But I hadn't seen him live like in an arena, you know, ever. So I'd

01:03seen him in some other places along the way. But, you know, tremendous player. But I was really blown

01:08away. I was moved so much. Every time he bent a note, it really just went straight inside me. And

01:14it was a recognition that, A, you know, I heard myself in his playing because it's such a big part

01:21of how I approach the bends and how I find pitch. And he was so in the middle of that pitch that we

01:27talked about in the last lesson, finding the center of the pitch. And he's textbook for that. And I know

01:31that Larry Carlton was an influence on him. And he's another guy that I learned immense amounts from.

01:36That first Larry Carlton solo record with Room 335 and some of his great early tunes. That whole record

01:43is everything you need to know about bending 101 and beyond, honestly. So these two guys,

01:50big influences on me. Great to see Steve recently and just be so blown away. It brought me to tears.

01:55It really, truly did. And as I've talked about Jeff Beck before, seeing him and what he does with

02:00string bending. It's just mind-blowing. So let's continue the path here. Let's talk about some more

02:04techniques and hopefully we can improve all of our bending. Okay, so now we're going to dig into

02:10bending through a scale. We're going to start with C-sharp Dorian as it applies to the C-sharp minor

02:15blues we're going to get into here in a little bit. So let's hear the sound of that C-sharp Dorian

02:20all on the G string, because that's where we're going to be bending. So I'm going to start on the B.

02:25C-sharp, D-sharp, E, F-sharp, G-sharp. What do you want to call that? A-sharp, I suppose? B,

02:33C-sharp. So we want to get that sound in our head.

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

02:48Okay, now we're going to do a series of bends that are going to go from one note and bend up

02:54to the next scale note. Okay, so 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. Again, trying to find just the center of that

03:05pitch. No vibrato. A 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, I'm going to fret that note and then bend

03:23up to the next scale note. Okay, so we have, you could either re-articulate or just slide it.

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

03:38slides. Now, we've got, this next bend is a half step because the next scale note is E from the D-sharp.

03:49So we have, so that's kind of new what we're talking about. That's just a half-step bend from

03:56D-sharp to E. One of my favorite bends is that where you can find a good half-step.

04:04And this is usually where it is. It's in that when you've got a minor chord. The third,

04:09if you bend from the nine. Now, from that E, the next scale tone is a whole step.

04:23We're bending from E to F-sharp. Next one is F-sharp to G-sharp.

04:29G-sharp to, we're going to call it A-sharp. Always feels weird saying A-sharp because it's

04:34inharmonic with B-flat, but it's in this key. It is A-sharp. Then A-sharp to B. If we want to

04:41complete the octave, B to C-sharp. So as an exercise, well, the way I would combine this,

04:48why I connected this. That's a nice way to do it. Do a release.

04:53Again, an overbado at the end. Or maybe a little reward at the end.

05:17All right. So what goes up can come down. So let's do the whole thing in reverse.

05:22Let's start at the, uh, at the octave where we start here on the G string. And we're going to go

05:28up to that, uh, math is good. 16th fret on the B. So pay attention as you're going through this,

05:42the strength that it takes and the articulation that you're getting, not only from the bend

05:46and it's the release. And then sliding into that next note, setting yourself up to where the next

05:53bend occurs. I'm getting as much volume out of, then I'll re-articulate.

06:04Let's do it.

06:11Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Category

Transcript

Recommended