Phrase Book: Pre Bends

Hi GMCers and welcome to my latest lesson. This time we are looking at the technique of Pre-bending. What is a pre bend ? It is a technique where you raise the string to the desired pitch before you play it. Usually after the string is played, you then release the bent note which gives the desired effect.

This is a very useful technique and is heard widely in rock and blues. People like Joe Satriani use it to great effect.

Technically it doesn't require any more physical effort than regular bending but the difficulty lies in getting the correct pitch without any auditory help. I recommend practising this by choosing a pitch to bend to, then find that note elsewhere (it can be on the same string or another string, it doesn't matter) and play the note to remind yourself of the pitch you need to bend to. For example, imagine you want to bend up to the note of A on the G string. You're bending from the 12th fret up a whole tone. In order to help yourself with the accuracy of the bent note, you can just play the 14th fret anytime to get the note in your head.

Have fun with this lesson and I'll see you on the forum !

Gear: Marshall JVM 410H. OD1, Orange setting. BASS - 4, MID - 4, TREB - 6, GAIN - 3

Tempo: 90bpm

Key: G Major