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184 Part III: Beyond the Basics: Playing Like a Pro The rubber-band blues: Bends
that stretch a string
String bending is perhaps the most important — and certainly the coolest
and smoothest — left-hand technique available to a blues guitarist to alter a
fretted note. Bending is the act of stretching a string with a left-hand finger,
increasing its tension, and causing the resulting pitch to rise. Bends are
most effective on electric guitars, where the string gauges (thicknesses)
are lighter and the strings are more flexible than on acoustic guitars,
though string-bending on acoustic, while more limited, is still effective.
Also, electric guitars are better at sustaining long tones, which enhances
the sound of the bend.
In a bend, the pitch changes continuously instead of discretely through the
fretted intervals that hammers, pulls, and slides produce. With a bend, you
can vary the rate of change between notes, too. For example, if you have a
whole-note bend (four beats’ time to change from one pitch to another),
you can take the entire four beats to bend smoothly up to the new pitch.
Or you can wait three and a half beats on the original pitch and bend up
suddenly, covering the same distance in just an eighth-note’s time. There
are endless variations to bending, all up to the musical situation and your
personal taste.
The techniques of bending a note
To perform a bend, pick a fretted note and push the string across the fretboard
(toward the sixth string) or pull it (toward the first string) with your
fretting finger so the string stretches and raises the pitch in the process.
Figure 10-11 shows two types of bends on the third string, one fast and one
slow.
TEAM LinG
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Figure 10-11:
Two types of
bends on
the third
string.
T
A
B
1/2 1/2 1
7 7 7