I am pretty much a 5 month beginner to guitar and I am just now working on serious blues work. (soloing, and technique) What I was wondering is, when bending on the high E string, do I bend down? Or Up? It seems when I bend down I run out of fretboard and go off the edge of it. Or is there no particular way to bend a note?
Ok Im rambling. Thanks for any help guys! :D
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If you bend down you'll run out of real estate pretty quickly, so bend up towards your B string. A general rule of thumb is to bend towards the center of the fretboard. So, if you're bending the G, B, or high E string, bend up. If you're bending the low E, A, or D, bend down. Though, I tend to bend the D up.
You bend up. You've already discovered why - you run out of fretboard going down.
In general, the 1st and 2nd strings get bent up, the 5th and 6th get bent down, and the middle two strings can go either way - some riffs will be easier in one direction than the other.
The exceptions will be in oblique bends - where you're playing two notes, and one gets bent while the other is held. An oblique bend is always done by bending the bent string away from the other one. Oblique bends aren't done very often where the high E is bent (again, because you run out of fretboard), but you might find rare situations where you're bending the B string down or the A string up - you're doing that to avoid running into the held string and accidentally dampening the note.
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