Help on Bends!!!

[beautiful_dae]

Hi all,
I'm learnin string bending but i juz can't get it. When you are bendin a note 1/2 or full, how many finger does you use, where does you position the fingers??? Do 1/2 bend uses 1 finger and full uses 2 fingers??? Are all the fingers join together when do 1/2 or full bends??? i will greatly appreciate all replies!!!

[The Fury]

Try this: http://www.cyberfret.com/techniques/bends/index.php - it should answer all your questions.

[gck]

You can use as many fingers as you want for the bend, but usually two will be enough. Just place the second finger behind the fretting finger, then rotate your wrist around the neck to push the string up until you are at the desired pitch (use your ear). Using more than one finger is especially good when you need to sustain or vibrate the bended note.
For quick "grace bends" (you don't want to sustain the bended pitch, you just want to get a short squeal, as in a grace slide) you can also use just one finger.

[beautiful_dae]

Hey all,
thanks for all the help you all had given me but i have a few question to ask,

Whats the different between a bend release and a bend & release????

AND

What is a release when it is written like this 7r and how to do this???

AND

what does this means, brb where b=bend r=release and how to do this???

A great thanks to all help/replies given.

[gck]

To my mind, a bend release is the same as a bend & release. It means simply to release the bended pitch to the fretted pitch (slowly) again.

7r alone doesn't make much sense. If it's like 7r5, that would mean bend up a step from the 5th fret, then pick the note and release it to its original pitch again.

brb might mean something like a very wide vibrato, like 5b7r5b7r5... would mean to bend and release from 5th to 7th fret for several times...

[Nick]

I'd like to add to the questions list:

How to you add vibrato to a bend without losing the pitch??

my fingers dont seem to want to moved whilst holding a bend.

[Naster Lunboks]

When I did bends I always pulled the string down toward the floor, but recently I've seen information saying you push it up toward your thumb. This seems more difficult to me... Perhaps because I'm used to the other way? Why is pushing it up to the thumb "better?" This also makes it harder for me to do bends with vibrato.

[gck]

1) Adding vibrato to the bend is really difficult if either you're doing the bend the wrong way by pushing up the fingers rather than rotating the wrist around the neck because all the strength would have to come from your fingers then, or if you're new to playing and have only little overall strength in your hands.
The best way to add vibrato to a bend is to go up to the target pitch, then slightly "rattle" your wrist up and down, like you're suffering from Parkinson, hehe. That way you'll play a "real" vibrato i.e. making the note go flat, then back to normal, then sharp, and repeat everything. The most important thing is to always return to the correct pitch!! If you don't, it will sound really awful. The whole thing about a good vibrato is that it should sound like a vibrating "note", therefore, you must return to that note or the listening ear will lose the connection to the note and it will just sound, well, out of tune.

2) Sometimes you will have to pull downwards to do a bend: for example, if you want to bend the 6th string, pushing up would bring it over the fretboard, so you'll have to pull it downwards. That's also the reason why you can't pull a bend on the 1st string downwards...

Pulling shouldn't be prefered to pushing upwards because of the fact that you can only pull downwards with your fingers i.e. placing all the stress on them. When you push upwards as described above your fingers will only carry little stress and most of the energy comes from your (much stronger) wrist. That's why pushing upwards is better, and easier!! Just try it correctly and you'll see that pushing upwards is your preferred way :)

[Naster Lunboks]

Thanks, I'll try that. I've been trying to use my wrist rather than my fingers themselves but it still seemed easier to go down than up. Maybe my posture's wrong... I'll work on it.

[respect-ed]

I have to disagree with some of the comments in here...Even though bending technique is an individual tech. that differs from person to person, Ive been religiously tought to bend down on the strings that allow this "low e to g", and let gravity help out....

[Mr B]

strange religion, but I see your point.