Do you have great bending technique or want to make your current bending skills better?
Assess yourself by answering these questions:
How do you perform the perfect half-ghost bend?
How does one expressively perform chain bends??
How do you use double stops and bending in a non-blues style?
These are just a few ways to make your current bending technique more creative and expressive.
Anyone can learn these cool techniques quickly and start using them to enhance their lead guitar licks.
Learn how to do it for yourself by watching this bending technique video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc524MuZNrs
The greatest way to learn these string bending ideas is to improve other components of guitar playing that make all your lead guitar ideas sound cool.
What are these other components? They are:
String Bending Mastery Element # 1. Expressive Vibrato
Notes with bends applied to them won’t hold for long if you don’t emphasize them using vibrato. More notably, guitar playing without (terrific) vibrato sounds as stimulating as a day of watching paint dry on your new car.
Here are among the most important points to know about mastering vibrato:
Correct vibrato technique
Wrap your fretting hand thumb around the fretboard of the guitar. Push the web between your thumb and first finger against the back of the neck.
Reposition the string by turning your forearm. Do not use vibrato with your fingers only.
When you make the habit of using your fingers to do vibrato, it is difficult to keep your vibrato perfectly tuned.
The correct movement for vibrato should be much like you are going to turn a doorknob.
Check out this video to watch a tutorial right now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpGXjNTe0EU&feature=emb_title
Harmonize the speed & width of your vibrato
The quicker your vibrato is, the more wide it needs to be to sound excellent. Play vibrato at a slow speed — the more narrow it can (and ought to) be to be really good.
Make sure you don’t make your vibrato fast & narrow together.
When you do this, your overall guitar playing seems to sound very tense.
Now you know about that mistake …
Don’t make a slow vibrato too wide as well. If you do, your vibrato will sound like slow bending technique. (This doesn’t sound very musical at all.).
Sync your vibrato in tempo with the backing track or song.
What does it mean to “sync” your vibrato up with the music you are playing to?
It means to apply vibrato with constant note values that are in time to the beats of the music. To do that, play vibrato in 8th notes, 16th notes and triplets.
Check out this online video to see and hear many examples of how to do this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAdXDZXLREw&feature=emb_title.
String Bending Mastery Element # 2. Long-Lasting Sustain.
Just as I mentioned in the video on top of the page …
… you can not overlook the value of not being scared of letting the notes ring out for a very long time.
(Rather, envision that you get a piece of gold for each and every moment you get your string to ring out.).
Your lengthy notes won’t sound dull to your listeners, as long as you do what we’ve been discussing in this write-up.
Question: “But Tom Hess, is it actually achievable to enhance your guitar’s sustain without getting a sustaining app, a new amplifier, special gear or possibly a brand-new instrument?”.
Reply: Definitely.
Right here are my general ideas for getting limitless sustain on your guitar:.
Play the note by fretting it right next to the fret itself. If you are consistent with fretting very close to the fret wire, the better your sustain will be.
Pick directly down through the string. Don’t permit the pick bounces away from the string. This prevents the string from slapping on the frets (which destroys your notes’ ability to ring out).
Use a lot more of the pick to strike the string. This delivers you a louder opening note (which aids sustain). As a bonus perk, this also enhances your 2-hand synchronization.
Master fast and wide vibrato. This is the one crucial part of terrific sustain.
Think of getting more sustain from the notes of your slower licks as you are playing. This approach helps your hands recall what to do to boost sustain.
Watch this video to view these tips at work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5aZRSYNuFQ.
String Bending Mastery Element # 3. String Noise Command
You know any person who enjoys the sound of unclean string noise?
I know I haven’t.
If your playing has plenty of noise, don’t worry about how good your string bending and vibrato sounds …
… You will sound mediocre!
How do you stop and/or control string noise?
Before anything else, use thumb muting.
This refers to the following: rest your picking hand’s thumb on the lower (in pitch ) strings to prevent them from sounding.
As you move between strings, the thumb should slide along and always cover the strings below the one you are on.
Watch this video to view thumb muting at work:.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qlo8V21E9Y&feature=emb_title.
Question: Tom Hess, why do I hear pinch harmonics sometimes when I try to use thumb muting?
Reply: This occurs because you are leaving your thumb to hang over the edge of the pick and it touches the string right after your pick does.
To fix this, move the thumb further back, so it does not have skin hanging over the edge of the pick.
Roll the thumb nearer to the edge of the pick the moment you do want to play pinch harmonics.
Question: Tom Hess, is thumb muting only great for bending strings?
Reply: No. Use it for any lead guitar playing (including fast sweep picking and scale sequences).
In addition to keeping your playing clean, thumb muting also holds your hands closer to the strings.
What this does for you: your hand movement becomes totally efficient — so you are able to play super fast and cleaner.
Thumb muting will be enough to eliminate most unwanted string noises in your playing.
Now you know a bunch of cool ways to bend strings during your lead guitar solos and licks. The action to take at this point is to develop the other areas of your guitar playing (everything from your soloing, fretboard memory, expressive skills and music theory understanding), so you are able to …
… At long last put it all together and make yourself into a great guitar player!
Learn more ways to become an amazing lead guitarist by studying a free resource I made for you called, “The Secret To Adding Fire To Any Guitar Lick… Even If You Can’t Play Fast Yet”
About The Author:
Tom Hess is a highly successful guitar teacher, touring musician and composer. He teaches electric guitar online lessons to guitarists around the world. Follow Tom Hess on Facebook for daily guitar playing tips and links to free guitar resources.
