T
ool & D
ie page 6
G
et
B
ent
In my last column we talked about the concept of steps. Just a quick review:
1 step is equal to 2 frets. So if your finger goes from fret 1 to fret 3, you
traveled 1 step up on your fretboard. If you move from fret 3 to fret 4, you
traveled a half-step. Simple right?
This month's topic is bending. Bending allows you to reach a higher note without changing frets.
You just gotta put some muscle into it. When I first learned to play guitar, I went out and bought
the sheet music for Guns N' Roses: Appetite for Destruction. When I tried
to play Slash's solos, I noticed on a lot of the notes there were these little
curved lines at the end. After much frustration, I finally figured out that
they were indicating a bend.
The key to bending is you are NOT just randomly shaking the string.
When you bend, you are traveling to a SPECIFIC note. Before you bend,
you gotta figure out what the note SHOULD sound like. First, play FIG-
URE 1. This is NOT a bend. Just play the notes and listen to what they
sound like.
Ok, that was easy right? Now in FIGURE 2, you will bend the 15
th
fret
until it reaches the pitch that you just played on the 17
th
fret in Figure 1.
You will be bending the note exactly 1 WHOLE STEP. This takes a lot of
practice! The trick is to put your PINKY finger on the 15
th
fret. Use your
other 3 fingers to help push the string up (toward your face).
Once you get that down, try FIGURE 3. It is based on the Pentatonic
scale. Kirk Hammett uses this scale in his solos all the time. The bend at
the end is the climax of the lick. Nice....
Next issue we'll explore some other scales. Until then, keep bending the hell out of those strings.
And don't forget to tune your guitar frequently because bending will almost always cause a guitar
to go out of tune.
By Will Kehoe