Not being able to bend a whole tone on the eight fret of my nylon string guitar, couldnāt I simply bend a half tone on the ninth fret, and so on?
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Hi Yann and welcome
The licks are all played within the A minor pentatonic scale and the notes on 9th frets are not part of the scale, so effectively no. You would be bending the 3rd and 7th intervals giving a major feel that would sound complete wrong in the minor pentatonic. That may work somewhere (major pent) but not with these exercise/licks. Bends on acoustics will be much harder that on electrics but I am unable to comment on nylon strings I am afraid,
Just tried doing an eighth fret bend on my nylon. Itās no easier than on the steel.
Iād just bend it as much as you can. Get yourself an electric, much easier 
This isnāt a good Idea. Doing bends wrong gets the wrong sound
into your head. Itās better not to do it at all. If @Jan29 doesnāt have
an electric guitar itās better not to do the lesson.
To quote Justin āPractice Makes Permanentā
Hi @Vlen and welcome to the community.
This is something many of us have experienced.
Firstly, it can occur a lot if the action of your strings is too high.
Also, it can occur if you are pressing āintoā the fretboard rather with fingers digging in rather than across the fretboard with fingers pushing up on a rotating wrist. Your fingers may also be too flat and straight. You donāt want to have very tightly curled fingers for bending, nor do you want super-flattened fingers with all knuckles flexed open.
I hope that helps/
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide & Moderator
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Check this supplementary topic for additional guidance and support on learning and using blues licks to play lead improvisation: First Steps in Blues Improvisation using Minor Pentatonic Scale Pattern 1
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u |
Just getting into the Blues Lead lessons and am loving Justinās lessons. In his suggested listening for Five Blues Licks, Justin mentions that āAlbert King played his guitar upside down with the thin string at the top. String bending is a bit easier this way (pulling down)ā. I tried it and YES - it is easier. So my question is why donāt we (and everyone else) use this technique or is it somehow wrong?
If you pull the string down you canāt do techniques where
you bend a string and play the string below it.
A vary common technique in Rock, Blues and Country.
Check out the open lick in I Used to Love Her and near
The end
Just learning bends and the problem Iām having is that my fingers tough the string abov3e the bent string and make sound. For example, I do lick #1 on the High E and as I bend upwards my fingertips often touch the B string above it and create a tone of the open B string. How do I prevent that?
William
You can stop the B string ringing out by muting all the strings above the e string with the edge of your picking hand or as you are bending with your ring finger mute the unwanted strings by gently resting your index finger across the strings.
In general practice you use the edge of the picking hand to mute the strings above the note you are picking and the free fretting hand fingers to mute the strings below.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Toby
Thatās me! Semi-competent! Emphasis on semi.
Does anyone know the timing for lick 5?
hey sdndr, I had trouble with the timing of Lick 5, also. Itās written out in music notation under āDiscussionā, if you read notation.
I managed to learn it by ear, i.e. imitating Justin, but I canāt count it. Itās unfortunate that Justin doesnāt count it himself in the video, he generally gives the counts for these licks.
I also have trouble incorporating it into an improv with a backing track. Thereās just something about it which doesnāt seem to sit right (which makes me think Iām probably not playing it right). Iāve decided to drop Lick 5 for the time being and perhaps come back to it.
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These videos have been great - I love the āwordsā analogy and practicing licks seems to make sense to me. The problem Iām having is that I donāt quite get how to string the licks together into āsentencesā. Each lick feels like it ends a sentence rather than flow into the next one. What am I missing? Help appreciated 
hi jeff,
The million dollar question for most I guess when first acquainted with this stuffā¦Iām going to give it a try from my own experienceā¦and Iām pretty sure this isnāt for everyoneā¦ .a random listā¦in the beginning your tempo and timing is not good enough, you canāt just ācopy pasteā all licks in a row,ā¦ practice moreā¦, not every lick āfeelsā nice to play and just doesnāt suit you but does give the experience that you can use later with other licks and then it makes senseā¦a lot of practiceā¦donāt try to string them all together take breaks (I do that very often still wrong) ā¦ oh yes, a lot of practice and it will really happen to you that you play a few smoothly and perfectly in successionā¦
I still remember well after the first 2 pattern licks lessons it really annoyed me that I couldnāt play along a little properly with the backing trackā¦that needed ā¦and still doesā¦time and ā¦a lot of practiceā¦ ā¦I do see a recurring theme in my slightly too long storyā¦ 
So quickly saidā¦I donāt think youāre missing anything, just try and definitely post something about yourself soon and ask for help in time, there are real teachers around here so success is guaranteedā¦i wish you lots of fun here 
Greetings ,Rogier
Mega
The licks may not sit well over the same backing track as Justin presents them. Having practised them broken them down, played bits, played backwards and everything else Justin says about using you should be able work them into the same track. They might not sit nicely together so you may need passing notes from the pentatonic scale to link them together. Think of those note like punctuation that breaks up a sentence and makes is flow and sound like it makes sense. You need to experienment.
I am not one for pushing my own impros but my latest post may give you an idea. These particular licks are from another source and not just in one position but it may give you an idea of what I am trying to say.
Cheers
Toby
https://community.justinguitar.com/t/madmans-new-diary-chapter-two-blue-boy-wheres-cyndi/84245/40
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Just getting into learning these licks and having them as part of a repertoire. Quick question using pattern 1 licks for example, on what progression you would play these licks over??? Aminor Blues or C Blues?? I understand the realise major minor thing, however Iām trying to land on chord tones.
Lick 1 ends on A note, so would sound good to me over Am, as A is not in the C chord would you not use it over a C part of a progression?
Lick 2 ends on a C note so presumably this is good over Am and C
Am I over thinking and can they be used over Am and C no problem?
Hey, you are not overthinking. These licks are for A or Am blues progressions, but not C blues. The C major pentatonic scale has the same notes as the Am pentatonic, but the licks are generally different. Furthermore, care must be taken when using major pentatonic licks over a blues progression. Justin talks about this in a Grade 7 module.
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Hi @Richard_close2u, thanks for your input.
Yes, I can read the tab and in fact, I can play it in time so it sounds like what Justin plays in the video. However, it doesnāt seem to flow naturally when I play it over a blues backing track. And I find it difficult to count. The problem is the 2nd triplet form, where the quarter note takes the last two-thirds of the triplet. I donāt always come out of that in time and beat 4 sometimes is off the mark. Just needs more practice, I guess.
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