Bending notes

That''s kind of what I figured and the only reason I brought up the two finger stuff was that everytime I would play for my instructor and there was a bend he would stop me and say what are you doing...I'd look at him like "Huh, I'm playing the song" and even though I might have bent the note to the correct pitch with one finger he would always stop me and tell me to use two.

Not sure if that is the correct way or his personal way but I have seen many articles instructing you to use more than one finger actaully I think I had read you should use as many as possible, but you can't quote me on that.

Maybe sonmeone like Noteboat will read that and comment.

Sara, remember that most of the motion (using that instead of "strength" because, as Chris notes, it's not really about strength) needed for good bending isn't actually from the fingers but actually from the wrist. If you've a decent hand position, it will come from using your wrist as you would to turn the key of a car ignition. The wrist will give the fingers the push they need.

it's often said "from the wrist", but I think that's a little deceptive, as it's a rotation of the entire forearm, actually starting up at the elbow (fixed) and becoming most apparent from the wrist through the hand and fingers. the arm muscles are doing much of the work at the start of the bend, and the finger muscle helps finish the bend after the grip on the string and leverage are well established.

David points out that the wrist is where the action is Greg gives the rest of the arm a role as well (which I'd go with too) plus our fingers are largely operated by tendons attached to muscles in the arm, not actually in the fingers (at least they are when you're not severing them, like a certain esteemed GN stalwart did.... :( )

But as Tommy Emmanuel pointed out in the video I watched, even relentless professional guitar playing doesn't build up any detectably big muscles.

I think this picture supports his opinion. The Rock Physique, as modeled by Johnny Winter

I still contend that most of us have enough strength in a normal arm to do a reasonable bend. What we usually need to work on is programming the software in the brain that runs it all, so that all the pushing points and angles are as efficient as possible. The better I get at guitar the less effort it seems to need, and I think that's because I'm building a muscly guitar brain, not strong arms.

But they say I'm descended from an ape..... so I have pretty good arms anyway...

Ook Ook Ook...

Ook

That''s kind of what I figured and the only reason I brought up the two finger stuff was that everytime I would play for my instructor and there was a bend he would stop me and say what are you doing...I'd look at him like "Huh, I'm playing the song" and even though I might have bent the note to the correct pitch with one finger he would always stop me and tell me to use two.

Not sure if that is the correct way or his personal way but I have seen many articles instructing you to use more than one finger actaully I think I had read you should use as many as possible, but you can't quote me on that.

Maybe sonmeone like Noteboat will read that and comment.

That's something I didn't actually think about, but after getting hold of a guitar and trying a few bends, I noticed that yes, I'm usually using at least two fingers - although that has as much to do with damping adjacent strings and pushing them out of the way as it has to do with strength. I also noticed I'm bending (for example) the B string past the starting position of the D string, so I'm bending the D string and damping/muting it at the same time. Carried on noodling and noticed that at times I'm bending the top E string past the G string!

I've never really thought about it before - and when I severed that tendon a while back, it did take me quite some time to build my hand strength back up, but I didn't notice any discernible effect on my ability to bend notes.

:D :D :D

Vic

Part of the reason to use two fingers is stability, you will get am uch more consistent bend using two fingers than one.

I'm glad I posted this, as it is making a very good read, and it has taken the edge of my frustration a fair bit. Off to do some practice now, and will spend some time working on bending and report back. Again, thanks for the discussion and advice guys, and keep it coming if you have more to say.

FWIW, I always use additional fingers to support my bends, except when I use my first finger to e.g. bend a minor third up to major third, or some such. Then, repositioning the hand for the bend, and then back to playing 'naturally' is a drag, and I've always just used the first finger for those types of bends.

Actually, those bends still work fine, so perhaps I'm tensing up in anticipation of larger bends? Hmm, will have to consider this in a minute. I'm also having more slippage and general trouble bending the top E than with other strings, so that's another to consider (may be my technique isn't so strong here).

Anyways, thanks for giving me the opportunity to work through this with all your helpful comments!

Having practiced today, I find I can bend the G string 1 step, and 1 1/2 steps with no problem. B string, I can bend 1 step no problem, but the accuracy goes if I try to bend further than that, and I sometimes get a bit of unwanted string noise. I could bend further on both strings previously, but not now, and I'm not sure why as I can't find any problems with my technique.

The problem is mainly bending the high E - my accuracy is off quite noticeably (imho, anyway), and I get way too much unwanted string noise from the B and G strings. The string isn't slipping out as much, but that still happens a bit, too. I'm thinking my technique is slightly off when it comes to bending the high E - I'm not getting underneath properly.

Something to work on then. It's good to get what's going wrong narrowed down to a few points to work on.

I suspect that you've lost a little bit of muscle memory and you're using finger strength rather than wrist/arm strength. You may also be tensing the wrist/arm a little, because the bends aren't coming as easily as before. It'll come back with practice.

Someone once told me it was much like turning a doorknob, which is indeed comming from the wrist. Of course the whole thumb moves when you turn the knob, so its not exactly the same, but I think in terms of the 4 fingers it is.
And although Mr Johnny Winter makes it look easy, and yeah to him it is easy, but I'm sure it took many, many hours of devoted practice to the fine art of string bending to get him that bluesy sound. :D

Pat

although Mr Johnny Winter makes it look easy, and yeah to him it is easy, but I'm sure it took many, many hours of devoted practice to the fine art of string bending to get him that bluesy sound. :D

Pat

Exactly the point I was trying to make with his pic. He's spent thousands of hours putting his brain through a Rock-n-Roll gym. He's got musical mental connections that positively bulge with power. But not much of it shows up on his body. :D

My guess is that re-leaning the bending will be about re-building a relatively small amount of actual muscle tone, and a much larger percentage of re-establishing mental connections that have got a little moth-eaten from lack of use. What percentage? Who knows.. :wink:

Just showed my kid an easy way to "force" you to make this become second nature...think of it as "pinky notes". Most chord extensions are with the pinky, anyway.

Instead of moving a finger up a fret or two...bend the note up there...epecially with the pinky. When you get adept at this...do it backwards, START up there and release the bend back down to where the chord wants that note. (IE: A7th to 6th, and vice-versa.)

Oh, yeah...I almost forgot: PRACTICE!

Cat