There’s a bunch of videos where Brian talks about this, but in his most recent micro lesson he definitely talks about it. ML091

In general, if you are using a major pentatonic scale, then 3 very common bends are: whole step bend from the 2nd to the 3rd, half step from the 2nd to the flat 3rd and whole step from the 5th to the 6th. Brian talks about exactly these bends in the above micro lesson.

If you are using minor pentatonic then 3 very common bends are: whole step from flat 3rd to 4th, whole step from 4th to 5th and whole step from flat 7th up to the root.

In minor pentatonic, it’s also very common to apply a little micro bend in the flat 3rd when you are lingering on it for a bit.

Hi,
Let’s take the minor pentatonic scale as an example (you can apply the same approach to the major pentatonic scale or any other scale).

The minor pentatonic scale is defined as: R b3 4 5 b7
For example: A C D E G
The main idea is to bend from a note (that may or may not belong to the scale) to a note that does belong to the scale.

Usually, we will stick with half-tone bends or whole-tone bends, but if you are strong and accurate enough there is nothing to stop you from using larger bends as well. SRV occasionally did macho 2-tones bends!
On an acoustic guitar, even whole tone bends can be very challenging, depending on the string gauge.

1. Whole tone bends
b3 -> 4 (C -> D)
4 -> 5 (D -> E)
b7 -> R (G -> A)
R – > 2 (A -> B); 2 is not part of the pentatonic scale, but it’s a nice note to add on songs in a minor tonality.

2. Half-tone bends
(2) -> b3 (B -> C)
b3 -> 3 (C -> C#); very common in blues where all chords have a major third.
4 -> b5 (D -> Eb); the b5 is the “blue note” and is usually considered part of the blue scale.

Obviously, in order to apply the above you will need to know more than just the “shape diagrams”… Knowing which note is where in any “shape” is essential.

An old video would be LEG032 on how to bend strings. As for which strings to bend Ep436 has practical exercises using the minor and major pentatonic scales for which strings to bend. Bending strings can also be found in Module 2 of the Lead Course. Some others of interest, Ep471 explains bendable notes and also ML071 – learn how to bend from a major to minor.🎶