Bend

What it’s for

On a piano, a note is fixed. On a guitar, you can push the string sideways: it stretches, and the note rises, smoothly, up to the next note or the one after. That slide in pitch, from one note toward another, is what gives the guitar its vocal quality: it cries, it shouts, it pleads.

Bends are all over the blues, with B.B. King and Albert King, who made them their signature. In rock, David Gilmour uses them on long, slow notes, while other players fire off dozens of them in a fast solo. In country, very precise bends imitate the pedal steel. And between two notes, a tiny bend brings out the blues’ “blue notes,” which fall between the frets.

How to do it

Here’s the move from the example at the top of the page, on the G string at the 7th fret.

1. Push with three fingers. Your ring finger plays the note, while your middle and index fingers sit behind it on the same string (6th and 5th frets) and push along with it.
2. Push the string toward the ceiling on the G, B and high E strings. On the low strings, pull it toward the floor instead, or it slides off the neck.
3. Rotate your wrist like you’re turning a key, with your thumb hooked over the top of the neck. Your wrist does the work, not just your fingers.
4. Aim for a specific note. 7b9 means: play the 7th fret and push until you hear the note at the 9th fret, a whole step higher. A bend only works if it lands in tune.
5. Mute what isn’t playing. As you push, your string sometimes drags the neighboring one along: let the underside of your index lightly touch it, and rest your picking hand on the low strings.

In tab, 7b9 reads: 7th fret, bent up to the pitch of the 9th. You’ll also see a curved arrow with full (a whole step) or 1/2 (a half step) above it. An r means you release: 7b9r7 goes up, then comes back to the starting note while it keeps ringing.

Examples

The example at the top of the page plays a released bend on the G string (7b9r7: D, E, back to D), the 5th fret of the same string, then a whole-step bend on the B string (8b10: from G to A). Everything is in the A minor pentatonic.

Here, the whole-step bend on the B string is followed by the A played normally on the high E: it’s the same note, and your ear compares them. Then a bend of just a half step, on the G string, released: from D to E♭, the blue note, and back.

e|------5------------------|
B|-8b10---8-5--------------|
G|------------7-7b8r7-5----|
D|----------------------7~-|
A|-------------------------|
E|-------------------------|

In sixteenth notes: a released bend, then a pull-off right behind it, twice, moving down a string, and two bends to finish on the A on the high E. The release has to come back exactly to the starting note, or the pull-off that follows sounds out of tune.

e|----------------------------------8b10-5--------5~-|
B|-8b10r8-8p5------------------------------8-8b10----|
G|------------7-5---7b9r7-7p5------------------------|
D|----------------7-----------7-5--------------------|
A|--------------------------------7------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------|

Licks

A blues lick in A, with a shuffle feel: a released bend on the G string, then a half step with your index, from C to C♯, bringing out the major third of the A7 chord. The phrase settles on A with some vibrato.

e|------------------------|
B|------------------------|
G|-7b9r7-5-5b6------------|
D|-------------7-5---5-7~-|
A|-----------------7------|
E|------------------------|

A rock lick in E minor, in 12th position: the bend on the B string (15th fret) meets the note on the high E (12th fret), twice, then a released bend followed by a pull-off, and one last bend on the G string.

e|-------12-------12-15b17r15-15p12--------------------|
B|-15b17----15b17-------------------15-12--------------|
G|----------------------------------------14b16-12-----|
D|-------------------------------------------------14~-|
A|-----------------------------------------------------|
E|-----------------------------------------------------|

A country lick in A, with a clean tone: the bend at the 4th fret of the G string rises from B to C♯, the third of the chord, then you play that C♯ again on the B string. The bend has to be crisp and in tune, like a pedal steel.

e|-------2---------------------|
B|-----2---5-2-----------------|
G|-4b6---------4-4b6r4---------|
D|---------------------4-2-----|
A|-------------------------4-0-|
E|-----------------------------|

Practice routine

Pitch first, without a metronome. On the G string: play the 9th fret, listen, then play the 7th fret and push until you hit exactly the same note. Do it ten times. Then do the same on the B string, from the 8th to the 10th fret, then just a half step, from the 7th fret up to the pitch of the 8th.

Then the speed of the motion, with a metronome, using the 7b9r7 bend:

• At 60 bpm: pick on one click, reach the top of the bend on the next click, hold for one click, release on the next.
• Then bend in an eighth note: you reach the top halfway between two clicks, still in tune.
• Then in a sixteenth note, and go up 5 bpm at a time to 88 bpm: that’s the speed of the advanced example.

Check against the 9th fret often: as you speed up, you tend to stop going high enough.

Common mistakes

Variations

The half step and the quarter step. A half step (1/2) is often enough, especially on the minor third. A quarter step, barely pushed, brings out the blue note, between minor and major: that’s the little shiver of the blues.

A step and a half, or more. On an electric guitar with light strings, the B string easily goes up a step and a half, sometimes two whole steps. Spectacular, but even harder to land in tune.

The pre-bend. You push the string before you play, silently, then pick the already bent note and release it: the note drops, like a sigh. Written pb or 7pb9r7.

The unison bend. You hold the 12th fret of the high E and bend the 15th fret of the B string up to the same pitch, playing both together: the two notes rub and then meet. It’s a rock classic.

The double-stop bend. One string gets bent while the one next to it stays put: one of the sounds of rock and roll and blues (see double-stops).

Bend plus vibrato. Once at the top of the bend, you let it down a little and push back up, several times: the bent note starts to sing. That’s vibrato on a bent note, written 7b9~.

Without your fretting hand. The whammy bar raises or lowers every string at once.

Acoustic or electric

On an electric guitar with light strings (often 9s or 10s, meaning a high E string 0.009 or 0.010 inch thick), a whole-step bend takes no real effort. Go for the full step, then try a step and a half on the B string.

On an acoustic, the strings are heavier and tighter, and the G string is usually wound: a whole-step bend takes a lot of strength. Start with a half step; it’s already very expressive. On a classical guitar with nylon strings, bends stay subtle: stick to a quarter step, or to vibrato.

Going further

• The bend lesson, with a blues phrase to play over a loop: The bend.
• Licks that use it: Your first licks, and the A blues scale.
• To make the note sing once you reach the top: vibrato.
• The other ways to change notes without picking again: the slide, the hammer-on, the pull-off.