Bending Techniques

Bending the strings produces a very expressive melodic effect that is indissolubly linked to blues, rock and heavy metal guitar. This technique enables you to connect two notes situated half a step, one, one and a half, or even two steps apart – and this without changing position, but simply by pushing the string upward (towards the ceiling) or downward (towards the floor). The only challenge is to bend the string to the point where it reaches the desired target note! There are several variations on bending, such as micro-bending (approximately a quarter step) which produces a bluesy effect, bend and release, and pre-bending. This course provides a video of the different bending techniques, two technical exercises and their corresponding recordings to practice reaching the desired target note, as well as eight licks for putting them into practice by playing them along to backing tracks.