What is Bending?
Bending notes is a big part of what makes the guitar such an expressive instrument with a nearly vocal quality. It’s not a difficult technique to apply, but one that can take a lifetime to master.
Musical Example:
For a sample of what this can sound like in a musical context check out David Gilmour’s epic solo from Comfortably Numb:
Featured Lesson:
To learn the basics of bending, here is a lesson by Nate Savage from Guitareo:
Important takeaways from the lesson are:
- Use as many additional fingers as possible to help you push the bend to the proper pitch (0:30)
- Anchor your thumb to the back of the neck to give your hand more leverage (1:20)
- Bend towards the roof on high-string bends, and towards the floor on low string bends (1:50)
- Make sure you are bending to the correct pitch by checking the targeted bend note with a fretted note (2:30)
Blues Based Bending
Here is another great lesson on bending in a blues context from Justin Sandercoe of JustinGuitar.
Bend It Like Gilmour
If you liked the David Gilmour bending example up at the top of this lesson, you might want to check out this lesson on his bend style by Paul Davids.
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