string bending problems

[neil groves]

Not so much bending the string, after a little practice I can now easily find the note I need at the end of the bend, thing is when I release the string to lower it back to it’s start location, the string I pushed it up into will sometimes get caught under my skin and get dragged down with it, causing unwanted sounds, how can I overcome this? the only string I want to sound is the one I am bending.

Terry.

[GnLguy]

@neil groves wrote:

Not so much bending the string, after a little practice I can now easily find the note I need at the end of the bend, thing is when I release the string to lower it back to it’s start location, the string I pushed it up into will sometimes get caught under my skin and get dragged down with it, causing unwanted sounds, how can I overcome this? the only string I want to sound is the one I am bending.

Terry.

Hey Terry

I think that you will find that once your finger tips callous a bit more, that problem will take care of itself. I suspect too that some experience this problem when trying to play too fast. Once those finger tips are like leather, there shouldn’t be any way for skin to get caught.

Bending strings to the proper pitch is something that everyone struggles with at first. Personally, when I was learning this, I bent the string very slowly and purposely and listened for the pitch. Some would call it the color of the sound.
A common bend in blues is 8th fret of the first string up a whole step to the 10th. Bend a C to a D. To practice, hit the D note, 10th fret 1st string, and listen to the pitch. Bend the note at the 8th and listen. By practicing very slowly and deliberately at first will help develop you ear very well to know when to stop the bend.

To me, there has never been a better slide player than Duane Allman, even though he died almost 42 years ago. I’ve read that his sense of pitch was so well developed that was able play down to the quarter pitch. His slide playing was based largely on emulating harmonica and some horn players and being able to control his slide notes to that degree was one of his main attributes.

Keith

[ChordGuy]

Neil
A common cause of this can be the nail of the finger catching the string a bit. I have to keep mine very short.
Micro tonal bending, there are alot of spots between some intervals that are pleasing to the ear. Try bending the major 3rd in very small incriments.
Steel players are a good sourse for these bends as they have no frets. Check out Lenny Breau and Buddy Emmons on a record called Minors Aloud. Couldn’t find it on Utube but heres Buddy doing a great job. Don’t know whos on guitar but his partial bends and over bends are nice too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htmf8MkuHhE

Buddy can wait till the last possible moment to finally resolve a note, love his phrasing

Gordo

[neil groves]

You hit the proverbial right on the head Keith, I do need to start slower then when I get to know where the notes are I think muscle memory will take over and I can play more relaxed and gradually build my speed up, I am trying to get it right first time and I think that’s probably going to do more harm than good long term.

thanks for the reply mate.

Terry.

[GnLguy]

@neil groves wrote:

You hit the proverbial right on the head Keith, I do need to start slower then when I get to know where the notes are I think muscle memory will take over and I can play more relaxed and gradually build my speed up, I am trying to get it right first time and I think that’s probably going to do more harm than good long term.

thanks for the reply mate.

Terry.

No prob, bro

There are no shortcuts when it comes to string bending – its just that some have a better sense of hearing when it come to it and pick it up quicker. Regardless, it takes some practice for all of us.

Spend a certain amount of time in each of your practice sessions to work on this and it is also beneficial to spend a few minutes finding simple melodies on the fretboard and then try to find those same melody notes around the associated chord.

Many instructors will tell you that if you can improvise around the chords in a progression, you will never play a bad note..

[Rickey]

on my guitar there is a lot more clearence under the strings in the center of the neck than at either end. i tend to have the same issue as you when doing bends in this area. callouses help as was mentioned. my problem is i work maintenance so i wash my hands a lot at work and do dishes at home, so if i dont play for a few days my hands soften right up.

[floydmanfloyd]

Hi Terry.

Had the same problems learning “Need Your Love So bad”. If you watch the video (link below) and look closely at the string bends you’ll notice when Justin releases the bends you’ll see he tends to mute the strings with his index and middle fingers on release. A bit like a bend in reverse. Something else……if you have any catchy bits on your fingertips, file them down with an emery board file, keep your fretting hand nails short and try not to snatch at the bends.

Need Your Love So Bad Lesson

Hope this helps.

[ChordGuy]

Hi Max and all
Sounds like you may need to adjust the relief in you neck. This will require a truss rod adjustment.
I don’t have an issue with callous’s. They went away many years ago for me, my fingers just toughened up a bit, one of the lucky ones i guess.
I know guitar players that carry sandpaper (very coarse) or other very rough material to rub thier finger tips on to help build up the callous. Others use thier thumbnail to rub the area. Some scrub thier fingers against thier jean legs. I even saw one who showered with rubber gloves! Legend has it Chet Atkins did this but it was for his nails, to keep them from getting brittle.
I think learning to relax helped me alot, most of my bending begins with my wrist rotating although some bends don’t allow for that.

Gordo

[Author]

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