This month, Andy Timmons discusses the beauty, and the importance, of string bending. String bending is truly a huge part of the guitar’s potential to be one of the most expressive instruments. Well-controlled string bending, and string bending with vibrato, will really make your melodies sing.
00:28Andy Timmons here, welcome back to my Melodic Muse column for Guitar World.
00:31Today we're going to explore the beauty and importance of bending.
00:34String bending truly is a huge part of the guitar's potential to be one of the most expressive instruments.
00:39And well-controlled bending can really make your melody sing.
00:42So let's begin by reinforcing some fundamentals we should all be working on.
00:46So let's dig into some bending. I'm going to do some really simple stuff to work on our foundational strength.
00:51And we're going to do everything in the key of C sharp minor today, right?
00:55So just kind of get that sound in your head.
00:59Maybe play your pentatonic scale.
01:04We're going to bend, the first bend is on the B string.
01:06We're going to bend a whole step from the note B to C sharp.
01:10I'm going to use my ring finger.
01:13And behind that I'm going to use my first and second finger to give it the strength to bend right up to that C sharp.
01:22Always good to check the note fretted that you're bending up to.
01:30And I'm really, I'm really trying to find, I call it the center of the pitch.
01:34Um, you know, if you can be a little, a little below it.
01:37Or a little above it.
01:41Always sharp is going to be way more difficult, way more uncomfortable to hear than, than really in tune or slightly flat.
01:46There can be a sweetness to just under pitch.
01:49But today let's really try to find the center of that pitch.
01:55So notice a few things that are happening with my left hand.
01:58Um, not only am I using my other two fingers behind the ring finger to give that, that finger the strength.
02:05But I'm also, there's a bit of tension at the, uh, the underneath of my hand is, is gripping.
02:11I feel some tension here, but also notably that thumb is, is anchoring.
02:15You know, it's a very Hendrixian thing.
02:19You'd always see, you know, those huge hands around that strat neck.
02:22And you can, that thumb was coming over not only to, to fret notes, but also to give him himself the strength to really bend.
02:28So I know that everybody's hand size is different.
02:38Everybody's technique is different as far as their hand placement on the neck.
02:41Some people really like to have their thumb behind the neck.
02:44And, uh, I think that will prove, prove to be slightly more difficult to get the type of bending that I do.
02:49We could try, see if I try to play with my thumb behind the neck.
02:56I have nowhere near the power of, and it's not really that I'm grabbing the top of the fretboard so much,
03:02but there is a bit of, uh, pressure and tension happening behind at the top of the neck with this part of the thumb.
03:09And everybody's, you know, neck width might be different as well.
03:14But if you can get that thumb in a position where, hello, hello, it'll give you that power.
03:24So again, and the other part of this little exercise is I want you to attempt to do this bend with zero vibrato.
03:31Because a lot of times as guitarists, if we fret a note, we instantly want to move it.
03:36But a really good practice is to, to, to do these things, but add no vibrato to really, to really know and be accurate with your pitch.
03:45Because if you're moving it, you know, you might be surrounding it and sometimes to good effect, sometimes to not so good effect.
03:53So I'm bending right to the note and holding it.
03:57So that's going to reveal two things.
03:58A, are you in tune?
03:59And B, do you have the strength to, to keep that up?
04:02Right?
04:03And once you've really started to hone in on that pitch, then let's, let's start adding.
04:17It's always a good exercise to try to play it very slowly.
04:20Again, we tend to employ a bit of nerve where we just start kind of moving, shaking our hand a certain way.
04:27But if it's uncontrolled and it's too fast, it can sound a bit nervous and out of tune, right?
04:33Not that fast vibrato can't sound beautiful.
04:34It can, it has its place.
04:35But right now.
04:44And there's obviously so many different types of vibrato.
04:46But I'm also getting my strength again from the underneath of my hand, gripping the bottom of the fretboard and also the, towards the back of the neck, the top.
04:58And that's a very slight, I'm just going slightly.
05:01I'm basically releasing the pitch slightly and coming back up to it.
05:05One of my first vibratos I ever learned, which I didn't really think was a vibrato, it's more of a bend, was from Ace Frehley of Kiss.
05:17He would bend that note a whole step and release all the way back down to the original note.
05:20He had wonderful control and that bend was always in tune, man.
05:29Ace is very overlooked when it comes to quality bending, man.
05:32He was a big early influence for me.
05:34We'll get into other influences later.
05:36Now let's try this exercise on the G string.
05:38I'm going to be bending now from the F sharp to the G sharp, staying in C sharp minor.
05:42So I was saying it's the same as we did earlier.
05:46It's a whole step bend.
05:49But now we're bending from the F sharp to the G sharp.
05:51You can check the note on the same string if you want.
05:54But in this case, I'm going to check it on the B string.
05:57I'm going to play that G sharp there on the B string on the ninth fret.
06:06And again, finding the center of that pitch, not above it.
06:10It's a little sharp.
06:12Clearly a little flat.
06:17And another point, another great thing about only bending to that pitch and not adding vibrato initially.
06:24Hey, we're going to really find the pitch.
06:26We're going to be accurate with that.
06:29We're going to get the strength.
06:30But then as a singer would, they don't necessarily add vibrato right when they sing a note.
06:34They sing the note in a very pure tone and then add the vibrato for the musicality.
06:42All right.
06:43And it's basically just lowering that pitch slightly.
06:52There it is.
06:55So now let's play a phrase that's going to combine bending both on the G string and the B string, still in C sharp minor.
07:07So I added a little something to that.
07:08So I dismounted.
07:09I released that bend in a very melodic musical way.
07:22Right?
07:23I gave it some duration.
07:25Then I released it.
07:26It's almost like I played it.
07:27Right?
07:28That's the melody.
07:29But how much more emotional, how much more effective it is if you've got that strength and the ability to really get it tuneful, but all with bends.
07:41And then that one last note from the B to the C sharp.
07:59And since that's our moment of singing, we're going to give it some duration and add that vibrato.
08:14And that last note, I release it and then pull off to that E.
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