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Posted by: Alex Feather Jan 23 2012, 09:37 PM

Hi guys I wanted to share my idea about bending! Sometimes it might be tricky to get it right and it takes time!
When I was learning I discovered a cool way to practice my bends and get them in pitch!
The trick is to use a tuner! Just plug in your guitar and try bending string and get exact pitch!
The way to practice it is:
Half step bending
Say you are bending B to C
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--12--13-----------------
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Try to hit this bend exactly so you will get C in a perfect pitch
After that try to do a
whole step
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--12--14-----------------
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Do exactly the same thing and make sure your pitch is right!
one and a half step
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--12--15-----------------
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Now try to do same thing but one and a half step
All three bends combined
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--12--13-12--14--12-15--
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Make sure to come back to B before you do your next bend!
I hope it helps!

Posted by: Opossum Jan 23 2012, 10:05 PM

I like your advice about the tuner. A friend of mine just recently turned me on to a SNARK vibration tuner. Clips onto the headstock. Made a HUGE difference with my string bending in a very short period of time. Best twenty bucks I ever spent.

Posted by: carminemarotta Jan 23 2012, 10:49 PM

Alex
I was using your trick to improve my bending and was wondering what a real guitarist would say about it. Now I know I wasn't wrong!
Thanks
Carmine

Posted by: maharzan Jan 24 2012, 02:07 AM

Cool.. I suffer so much on bending. The only thing I would like to add is try this in all the position/ strings on the neck coz, at each position its different on how much you bend. I think this is what holds me getting that perfect pitch everytime. For example bending at 2nd fret need more energy than bending at 14th fret.

Posted by: derper Jan 24 2012, 02:33 AM

A great tip/trick Alex!! Also, great "additional" tip, regarding doing this at different spots up and down the neck.


Another idea I saw a while back (perhaps a Joe Satriani vid on youtube?) involved bending, lets say the "G" note on the a-string up to an "A" note (whole step bend). So that's bending the 8th fret on the B-string to match the 5th fret on the high E. Basically you're bending up, and quickly checking intonation against that notes counterpart on the high-E. You could also work in (not in the original vid) the concept you applied, meaning do this with a half step bend, whole step, and 1 1/2. But, I haven't tried it to see how well it works, so I like the tuner idea better at the moment!!

Posted by: transformer Jan 24 2012, 02:46 AM

Hey Alex,

I know you've talked about my bending. I can actually bend very good. Here's the problem....I am severely hard of hearing. It is hard for me to hear the pitch of the note while I'm soloing. However, here's the weird part. I know I can sing in tune. I can hear if the frequency is garbled or not. I know that if I play a chord on the guitar, I can tell if it's in tune or not. But for some reason, most of the time, I can't tell if I'm soloing in tune or not. That's why I do so many retakes and I listen to my solo without the backing track and every time I'm bending a note on my recorded guitar, I play a half step or whole step note to see if it's in tune or not. That I can hear! But never when I'm playing to a backing track....any suggestions at all?


I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.

Posted by: Alex Feather Jan 24 2012, 04:03 AM

I think it will be a good topic for my Thursday video chat lesson!!! We can get deeper in to this!

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jan 24 2012, 06:43 AM

Great thread Alex! Using a tuner is a good idea to be sure of the pitch that you are reaching. It's also very important to pay attention to the sound, to incorporate it in our minds in order to train our ears.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Jan 24 2012, 08:33 AM

This is an excellent idea Alex! I should have thought of this before!

Posted by: Dinaga Jan 24 2012, 11:55 AM

Great idea mate. You can never practice bending enough!

Posted by: Alex Feather Jan 24 2012, 07:55 PM

QUOTE (Gabriel Leopardi @ Jan 24 2012, 05:43 AM)

Posted by: ElHombre Jan 24 2012, 08:22 PM

QUOTE (Dinaga @ Jan 24 2012, 11:55 AM)

Posted by: Dinaga Jan 24 2012, 11:36 PM

QUOTE (ElHombre @ Jan 24 2012, 08:22 PM)

Until the strings break
Well doing 1 1/2 bend on the high E and it will break sooner or later

Posted by: Alex Feather Jan 25 2012, 07:58 AM

QUOTE (Dinaga @ Jan 24 2012, 10:36 PM)

Or until someone comes in and hears you doing those disharmonic bends to oblivion, and thinks you've gone nuts

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Jan 25 2012, 09:10 AM

I used to have fun watching Guthrie's recording at a clinic where he was talking about bending the guys practicing under his watchful eye, were sounding as a bunch of cats, as they were bending strings in a frenzy

Great ideas mate!!

Posted by: Olivier777 Jan 25 2012, 10:58 AM

This is a good exercice indeed ! I always did my bends using my ears only to get it right the best I can...

Posted by: jonathan Jan 25 2012, 12:40 PM

I was actually practicing my bending last night doing half a step and then a whole step ,and the tuner idea would really help me achieve and recognise the right pitch this came in great time thanks !!!!!!

Posted by: Alex Feather Jan 26 2012, 01:54 AM

QUOTE (jonathan @ Jan 25 2012, 11:40 AM)

I was actually practicing my bending last night doing half a step and then a whole step ,and the tuner idea would really help me achieve and recognise the right pitch this came in great time thanks !!!!!!