Hi,

I have been getting into blues and I would like to improve my string bending. I bend with my thumb over the neck but it seems as if I am pushing the strings up with my fingers. My wrist moves when I bend so the motion isn't being completely generated by my fingers. However, I have read that the bending motion should be generated by the wrist and the fingers should remain stationary. Is this true? What is the correct way to bend?! Thanks!

P,
I am not much of a blues man...but yes, that is how I bend...but you need to find what works for you and then just work at it to tweak it how you want. Hope that this helps.

Bend whichever way feels comfortable and natural to YOU. As long as you can bend accurately and consistently, and it feels good to you, that's the "right" way.

Hi Penguin_21: no rights or wrongs: do what ya need to to get the sound you're chasing.

You can try pulling the strings downwards as well as pushing 'em up, too. Good on the lower strings.

And Jerry Donahue has a neat trick. Bend a string up and at the top of the bend catch the next one over with the tip of your finger, pick it and as you relax the bend on the higher string simultaneously pull the lower one across. So as the first string is bending down the second one is bending up.

Takes some work to find places where that sounds good rather than horrible. But it's a fun effect used sparingly.

Now. Bending behind the nut, anyone?

Cheers - C

All good suggestions. You might want to try using real heavy gauge strings and build up your strength, then bring them down a bit and you might see some added strength in those big bends. Good luck!

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Sure. I hit a harmonic on a single string (usually the small E or B) and push it up a step behind the nut.

Here is a bend I use very rarely. I am sure other people do it, but I have never seen it done...

Without playing, push the small E string up next to the B string. Hold the string in place with your third finger. Now pick the two strings and bend them wildly. It will be out of tune but it sounds real bizzar if you use it at the right time.

I play blues, and bending is one of the most powerful expressive techniques available for it. Follow the book to the degree that it makes sense, but keep in mind that there are many "flavors" of bending, such as quarter step, half step, and full step. Depending on where you are on the fretboard, using either the wrist or the fingers will make more sense. For example, a quarter step bend on the first fret with the high E string is a subtle thing that's best accomplished with a little finger pressure. Full-step bends from about the fourth through 15th fret may be more comfortable with more wrist action.

In any case, doing a lot of bending is going to exercise your fingers and train them to get the pitch right.

If you will be doing a lot of this, go to the guitar shop and buy some extra individual strings for your two highest pitched strings. You'll probably break one occasionally.

I have found it useful to plug my guitar into my tuner to gauge whether I am bending to the right pitch. Getting good, accurate bends requires practice.

You will probably find yourself practicing the expressive techniques of bends, hammer-ons, pull-ofs, double stops, double stops with bends, successive bends (one bend after another), slides, and vibrato a lot, just as you practice scales. It takes regular practice to get good at these things.

You can try and rotate your wrist inwards rather than use your fingers for the full effort

You should get into the habit of playing through your amp when practicing bends too

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The way you are doing it,though purist would say it is not proper is the way almost everyone does it. And since it is almost two years now since I have bent a string it is the most personal element of defining ones style.=Bending and adding vibrato. The only finger I do not bend with is my pinkie though a quite a few players like Robben Ford do a good job of it. I usually bend the high E-B and G strings up towards the ceiling, and the D-A and low E down towards the floor. A hard one to get down is bending the high E string with just your index finger ala BB King as you have no other fingers to support it, and I have a rather unorthodox way of doing it as I push it up towards the ceiling even when I leave the high E string. There are so many bends to play around with. A great one is just a little slur bend that is not even a half of semi tone as this can add a lot of flavor to your playing all the way up too two and a half Page and Hendrix bends that give that shake the audience out of there shoes. A good practice routine is going through all five positions of the pentatonic scales bending all the notes, also go up and down one string using the same scale bending all the notes. This is a great exercise as it gets your fingers used to the right amount of pressure for any bend and also builds up your finger strentgh and fine tunes your ear.

I have found it useful to plug my guitar into my tuner to gauge whether I am bending to the right pitch. Getting good, accurate bends requires practice.

Thanks Rudy that's a great tip!

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That is true as long as you learn your pitches and not become dependent of it. I do it a variation of bends, whatever feels comfortable at the moment of the bend, but that's just me.