 Hello everyone and welcome back to Blackstar Potential, my name is Lee Fuge and I'm here today with MusicTeacher.com and in this video we're going to look at five different types of string bends you guys need to know. All the tones you're hearing in this video today are coming from my PRS S2 Studio which is plugged straight into the Blackstar Studio 10 6L6. You're hearing the amp mic'd up today with a Luit Audio LCD 440 condenser microphone. So in this video we're going to cover three very basic types of string bends and two slightly more advanced types. So this is going to be a great starting point for you if you've never done string bending before but there's also going to be some ideas in this video on ear training and also some advanced concepts you guys can take away as you develop as a player. So let's get started with the most common type of string bend which is a full tone bend. So it's going to sound like this. So a full tone bend you may also hear this referred to as a full step or a whole tone or a whole step is a distance of two frets otherwise known as two semitones. So what that means is the note I was bending here was the seventh fret on the G so it's this note right here. I was bending that up to the pitch of the ninth fret so it's sounding like this. So we're hearing that first note turn into the second note with the string bend. Now this is the most common type of string bend. So there's a little bit of ear training here as well but there's also some technique to be done here. So we're going to look at the technique first of all. So you'll notice I was actually using my third finger for the bend but I was actually supporting the string with my first and second fingers. The reason for this is the string tension. If you try and bend that string with just one finger there's a lot of tension being placed on that one fingertip. By adding the first and second fingers to the string behind the bend we're now spreading that string tension more evenly across multiple fingers which therefore makes the bend a little easier on the fingertips. So the technique for string bending is to get your fingers in my opinion at a bit of a 45 degree angle so you want to be able to push the string up. You don't want to come directly underneath because you could slip off the string and you also don't want to come directly down on the string because again the string can pop out from underneath the fingertip. So a 45 degree angle is always best so your fingertip is not only pushing the string towards the fret bud but it's also pushing it upwards on the neck. I personally like to bend strings with my thumb over the top just for a little bit of extra support and I also like to use my index finger here as a pivot so my hand is anchored to the neck there and I'm pushing up using my entire wrist basically by rolling my forearm into the bend. You can do string bends without these anchor points but again it's all down to whichever way you find it comfortable. Some people will drop their entire hand like this and bend purely with the fingertips whereas others like me will use the hand almost as a pivot to help with that string push. So to train your hearing on a full tone bend you first need to work on what your reference note is. So when it comes to string bending you're always working within notes that are in a scale. So in this case I'm playing the A minor pentatonic scale in my first position which is by this note sets but I'm bending this note to this note here which is in my second position. So it's a D note up to an E note. So the E note there being my second pentatonic position. What I'm doing is I'm making sure that this D note turns into this E. So to train myself to hear this I first need to hear what my target pitch is going to be so I'm going to play this E note just to get the sound of this note in my head. Now when I play my D note it's obviously going to sound like a different note. So now I need to match those pitches. So right there they're matched. Now the good thing with this is by listening to that target pitch I can then work out whether I'm sharp or flat of my target. So if I play that target and then I under bend it's going to sound like this and if I over bend so you can hear the difference there between the under and the over compared to the target note whereas if I bend it successfully so it's slightly over there so it's all about training your sense of listening as you play. So this is something you're going to use through all string bends. So those are full step or whole tone or full tone bends. There are many different ways to describe this. The next thing I'm going to talk about is a half step bend or semi tone bend which is as you can probably imagine is half the distance of the previous bend. So if a full tone bend is two fret distance a semi tone bend must be one fret so it's going to sound like this. So it's a much smaller pitch distance so the same principles with referencing apply here but this time we're just using a reference note that's closer to our starting note. So now I'm going to play the 10 of the G which is the F note. Now that's my reference I'm bending this E note here which is the 9 of the G up to that. Again I can easily hear if I go under or over. I really want to get that one fret distance stuck in my head. So even though I am using the same technique there I'm still supporting the bend with other fingers you technically don't have to do as much supporting with the semi tone bend because you're not actually bending the string as far therefore the tension of the string is going to cause less impact. So those are great starting point for string bending because you've got the two fret bend and the one fret bend a whole tone and a semi tone. They're great for starting to develop your musical ear and hearing those pitch differences. So really take your time with that make sure you're really listening to that target note and taking your time with the bends to make sure that you're pitching them perfectly. The next type of bend we're going to look at is more of an embellishment type bend. This is called a quarter tone and it sounds like this. So what I'm doing there is just a little flick of the pitch with either my index finger or my third finger whichever one I want. The reason this is called a quarter tone bend is I'm not quite bending at the distance of a whole fret but the frets on a guitar are measured in semitones so each fret is a semitone higher than the previous fret. So we can't technically measure the accuracy of a quarter tone bend this is what's known as microtonal in this context because it doesn't actually exist as a note on the fretboard. It's more of just a little pitch embellishment. Think of the way a singer would sing a singer is never perfectly on the note they're always around the notes. So a quarter tone bend is a great way to add a vocal like quality to your licks and it especially works great in blues style playing. So all you're really doing you're not really needing to do any supporting here I'm just playing whatever little phrase I want and on the last note of that phrase I'm just flicking the string just slightly. I can hold it if I want but because of the microtonal nature it might sound a little bit dissonant so I would tend to just flick it and return it to pitch and you can do this down or up depending on whichever way you're doing it and you can also do it with other fingers. Now we're going to talk about two slightly more advanced string bending concepts. The first thing I'm going to show you is called a unison bend so it's going to sound like this. So a unison bend is when I take two notes from the same scale so in this case I'm going to be using the E minor pentatonic now and the notes I'm going to be playing are the 14 on the G and the 12 on the B. If I play these two notes together it's going to sound like this. This is like dissonance to those two notes even though they are in the same key they're very close together so what I want to do is I want to bend that 14 on the G up a full tone so it hits the pitch of the 16th fret which is the same note as the 12 on the B. This is where it gets the unison from in the name. So you can hear that I'm slightly over bent so these are really easy to go out with. If I go under or over it becomes very dissonant very quick. There's the point there where it works great. So I've got my full tone bend on the G and I'm also fretting the 12 on the B. Now they're the same note. These are often used in a rock context in that way there where I'm bending it slightly slower so I'm not going straight to the pitch you want to hear that ramp up to the sort of resolution of pitch and they work great with lots of vibrato as well so they're really fun bends they're great for rock licks. You can really spend your time fine-tuning these because you're actually playing your reference note at the same time. So that's in pitch, sharp and flat. It's very obvious when you're getting your unison bends wrong. You can also do them between the B and E strings except because of the pentatonic shape I now need to play the 15 on the B and the 12 on the E which again is very dissonant until I resolve it by bending. Same rule applies you're still playing the target note so it's very easy to hear when you're out. Unison bends are great to add to rock solos they really add a sort of screaming guitar sound and a lot of expression so make sure you get some practice in on those and the fifth and final type we're going to look at is harmony bends. So these are very similar to unison bends but this time we're not actually playing two notes in unison we're playing two notes from the same key that are harmonized. So in this case I'm going to go with the most common one which is a minor third it's going to sound like this. So what I'm doing now without getting too deep into the theories I'm playing two different intervals from the same E minor pentatonic scale. I'm playing this note here which is an E note which is my one and I'm playing this note here which is a G which is my minor third. They harmonize together very nicely I'm also playing this G note here and this B note which is also a minor third of each other and they harmonize together nicely too. The notes I'm fretting are these notes I'm playing the 15th fret of the B and E which is not a minor third and I'm also playing the 14th of the G and the 15th of the B which is also not a minor third. The note on the B string and the G I'm bending up a full tone so this time I don't have my reference pitch played at the same time I just have a harmony but again we can get pretty dissonant pretty quick if we're sharp or flat so there is a point where you will naturally feel like you've hit the right note which is when it sounds like this and likewise on the G and B string it's this note here I'm bending and you notice the technique for the bends is slightly different here because I'm actually fretting this higher note with my third finger so when I'm doing the harmony bend on the B and E strings I'm bending with my middle and first I'm fretting with my third and when I'm doing it on the G and B I'm fretting with my index and middle and keeping the third finger on the B string. Harmony bends are the sort of thing you'd expect to see a player like Slash use a lot many rock bass players use these but it's also used a lot in country music as well so both of those extra bend types both the unison bend and the harmony bend are great for ear training as well because you're pitch matching either the same note or a harmony of the note you're playing as well so they're a lot of fun and they will add a lot of interesting texture to your guitar solos so try those five string bending types out and let me know down below in the comments how you guys have gotten on with all five of them thank you so much for checking out the video I hope you've enjoyed the lesson don't forget to check out black star amplification on youtube for more free video lessons just like this and don't forget to check out musicteacher.com if you're looking for a guitar teacher in your local area there is a network of great teachers all around the country waiting to help you guys out thanks so much for watching and I'll see you soon