Bending Troubles

[Jamie FT]

Well I've just been looking through the new issue of guitar techniques I've just bought and in the new Shaun Baxter articles he's doing something on bending. It has a list of bending tips and I noticed that a lot of them I don't do. Such as "Bend using the 'print' part of the fingers, not the tips, or your fingers will disappear under the adjacent bass strings when you bend." "Place your thumb on top of the neck, directly above the gap between the first and second finger." I would've thought this would be bad technique, I've never done much with bends before but I've always had my thumb in the centre of the neck and using the tip parts of my fingers like I thought was right. The one that seems hardest for me to change to would be "Always bend a string upwards by turning your wrist, not by flexing your fingers (they should remain locked in position, as though set in superglue). As you bend, make sure that you maintain contact with the inside edge of your first finger and the underside of the guitar neck (this is your pivot). As you bend, your wrist should rise slightly, as well as turn." This also seems like it would be bad technique as normally I have no contact with the guitar on the left hand apart from the tips of my fingers and the thumb in the centre of the neck.

Could anyone please help me? Should I change my technique for bending? :(

[EricV]

Without getting into further details on my own bending technique, here´s what I think: I think you should consider Shaun´s advice as more of a recommendation. The things he describes works for him, and many other players as well. But of course, there are many different ways of doing things, and I am sure Shaun never meant to go "Unless you do it this way, you´re doing it completely wrong" or something like that
However... did you notice any weakness in your bending technique before, or just while reading the article ? Because if it works for you, why change it ?
Regarding the thumb behind the neck, a lot of people put the thumb on top of the neck for bends and vibrato, as this might help to apply more strength when you bend. Thumb behind the neck works great, especially if you do stretches and runs, but occasionally ( for chords, bends, fretting bass notes ), the thumb can be helpful
Eric

[DemonSorcerer]

Eric's right as usual...

The first thing you have to keep in mind with bending is INTONATION...be sure to nail the note you're targeting...keeping the thumb behind the neck when you do bends is unnatural, if you want my opinion...because that hand position kinda takes away the "grasping" strenght you need to do nice bends...i don't know if i'm makign myself clear...

As i always say..there's no bad or good "technique"...proper technique is just a bunch of parameters and suggestions to make guitar playing playing easier (i know this may sound weird but it's true) and elegant aesthetically talking...but you can always set those suggestions aside and go for your own approach, i guess...we're not classical guitarists, we're electric guitar players...

As for bending notes downwards...there are some situations where you really can't bend the string towards your face (upwards)...so you must bend down (e.g. when you want to make a whole step bend on thet A string)...on the other strings you MAY bend the note upwards...but there's a lil' fact: i don't know why, but when you bend a string downwards, it just adds some uncanny emotional twist to the bend...i don't know, just ask Marty Friedman, he bends downwards a lot...another player that i've seen that bends downward a lot is Stephan Forte from Adagio, but i think he doesn't count because he's soooooo influenced by Marty Friedman and Jason Becker...you can hear it in his playing...

David

[Dan_Bostrom]

Yep, I agree with Eric and DemonSorcerer.
The thing is to get MUSIC out of what you´re doing, not technique. Therefore, try lighter strings and start bending just a half note. (Why start off with heavy strings, impossible bends and get disappointed?) I would put focus on vibrato, ´cause if you can put a vibrato on the note you´re bending you are probably doing it right! I also start with easy stuff to get a good result quickly (mainly for motivation), and from there on I take it step by step. Intonation is very important (as DS said), so when practising always hit the note you´re supposed to reach first before you bend (e.g. Bend from 12th to 13th fret? Play the 13th fret first, listen carefully, then bend from 12th.)
Practice:
Play slowly B-C#-D on the 2nd string (frets 12-14-15). Listen carefully.
Then play slowly 12-14-(bend to)-15.
Then try to apply vibrato on the D (the bended note).
When you are comfortable with this, move on to whole note bending...
Good luck!

[widdly widdly]

Like the other guys said, I wouldn't bother trying to change you technique. I bend using my finger not my wrist and I always play with my thumb behind the neck. I only bend towards the floor on the wound strings (E,A,D).

The most important part of bending is intonation, ie. bending to the right pitch. I've found that playing scales using bends really helps get it down.

I play descending scales, for example in Emin I would play E, D bend to E then release to D, C bend to D release to C and so on down the scale. You can start on chromatic scales if the whole notes are to hard at first. Then move on to diatonic scales and once you have those down try doing pentatonics for some bigger bends.

The next exercise I do is to bend the note without picking it, then pick it and check against the reference pitch. That way you will be doing it "blind" so to speak. So bend the D to E, then pick it, then check it against the E to see that you got the right pitch.

[ashc]

I practice bends with scales as well - ascending in my case. The "dumb melody" game is fun as well e.g. playing Happy Birthday with all the upward steps and 1/2 steps as bends - like the scales your ear tells you when it's bad.

I agree that pre-bending before picking helps with the accuracy development a lot.

Technique wise (as in all things) I still have a long way to go, but I'm a thumb over the top "turning on the shower tap" method advocate.

[Jamie FT]

Hmmm, this thread has helped me greatly, thanks all. The problem I see with bending with the thumb on top of the neck is that it's fine when you're playing something quite slow but if it's quite nippy it seems really hard to switch quickly enough from playing normally with the thumb on the back of the neck to having it on top for a big bend. It just seems easier to keep it where it is. Ah well, I guess that's what practise is for. :(