Bending Notes

Bending or stretching strings with your left hand to change the pitch of the string is a great technique to add feeling or emotion to your guitar playing style. Bending the notes can be done very quickly or gradually, the most important part of this technique is to ensure you bend the note to a note that is within the key your are playing in. This technique is mostly used on electric guitar and not acoustic as the strings are easier to bend on the electric guitar.

Details of bending

1. When bending the first three strings (E, B, G) for the most part you will be pushing upward on the string. Do not just use just your fingers to bend the strings, rather use your wrist to perform most of the work. The wrist arches upward and downward to complete the action while the fingers slightly push the and hold the string in place.

2. As with anything nothing is written in stone so you may find bending downward on the G string is something you like to do. The most important thing is to bend to the correct pitch. The more you know your scales the better you will be at bending to the correct pitch. Let your ears help you, if you bend to a flat note you should notice it as it will sound bad!

3. There are many approaches to bending, for instance you can bend a note upward very fast. Another technique is to pre bend the string without sounding the note and then letting the note sound on the downward motion of the bend only. Sometimes when you are soloing you may just want to hold a bend at the top and let it sustain. Many guitarists of all types use this technique.

4. Another technique is to bend the string upward and immediately release the bend back to the original note. Also, sometimes you may just want to bend a string 1/2 step versus a full step just ensure you stay within the key you are playing.
Check out the examples below in the key of a-minor.

String Bending Lick 1
String Bending Lick 2
String Bending Lick 3
String Bending Lick 4