I would like to ask here “Gods of bending” what am I doing wrong?
It is my first attempt to bend B string on 3rd fret and it sounds more like dying animal than something good. Or is it supposed to sound like this in this tempo?
Sorry for messing up thumb, but hearing that tone sounds like animal saying “please just let me go” and I cant focus enough.
I would like to get some critism on my bending technique. I would like to go on right path in the beginning of that.
here are a couple items from a student somewhat new to bending.
bending a nylon string takes some strength. You will need to build up to it.
Practice the bend independently from the song for some time. Make sure you are comfortable with the bend and make sure it sounds proper. Normal bends are 1/2 step (curl) to 2 steps, depending on the sound. 2 steps needs to be bent in tune with the note two frets up. Practice bending in tune!
be sure to mute at the top of then bend unless the un-bend is part of the sound you want.
Pinky (finger 4) is a poor choice for bending due to strength. Move to finger 3 and it should go better, especially with nylon strings.
Bending is more of a wrist movement than finger push. Make sure to review Justin’s bend techniques video!
Bending with your pinky Is very difficult when first learning bending techniques and even more so on the first 5 frets.
First off you’re trying to bend with just your pinky, your going to have to use your hand as well by rotating it and stretch your pinky closer to the fret.
An easier method as a beginner would be to use your ring finger but you’ll need to move your whole hand which will mean your timing will need to be perfect to keep the melody and rhythm in proper time.
To help with getting used to moving your hand you can use a slide up to the 4th fret with your pinky rather than a bend. This will help with pinky independence and strength.
Hi @Carreta , let me disagree somewhat with the advice you’ve already received. This sort of bending, a quick bend in a fingerstyle acoustic blues style, is very different from the bending techniques described in Justin’s videos linked above. You must use the pinky, you can’t use your ring finger and you can’t rotate your fretting hand: it’s got to stay in position for what’s coming next. The bend is pretty quick, so I don’t think replacing the bend with a slide is very practical, either. Also, this is not a bend to be muted, I don’t think it’s really possible to mute a bend like this.
That’s the bad news, the good news is I don’t think it sounds that bad! I just watched Tommy Emmanuel play it (https://youtu.be/HO_KvavFEhA?si=G0pvauHwF1y3ynyY) and I think you’re on the right track. To my ear, I think you need to bend it a little more and probably a little faster, but I think that will come with practice.
@sequences Thanks for your time! I am definitely gonna check Justins lessons to this, but I think I cant replace here anything… of course Tim Van Roy gives this option to do it with ring finger, but for me it seems like wasting energy with another chord shape change. Also I am playing on steel strings or how to say it… not nylon.
@stitch Thanks for your time and advice. I also checked another comment and I must agree more with jjw.
@jjw Thanks for advice! I think you best understand this struggle (guys above are aiming probably for standard bending), but this one looks little different. I am gonna focus on bend just itself so I got more pinky getting use to it. I am following Tim Van Roy and he gives alternatives, but I would like to go Tommys way also because I can see it just fits here also with movement effectiveness.
I think maybe that tempo and “height” of bend is it. Thanks.
I just watched Tim’s tutorial and he releases and uses his hand to aid his pinky when doing the bend. So you can just use your pinky and suffer the consequences or you can listen to the person your learning the song from your choice. But bending with just your pinky as a beginner is learning a bad habit.
I stand corrected! Actually, that looks like a really good tutorial. There is a tradeoff in abandoning the fretting hand position for the bend, but it’s probably necessary in this case. I notice he also gets his thumb over the neck, in sort of classic bending style.
Often acoustic blues bends are just a curl, but I think this is a semitone bend, which is more difficult, obviously.
@jjw it is a very good tutorial and the guy knows what he’s teaching. But like all beginners, Michal when asking for guidance takes the easiest method or what they want to hear not the correct method. He’ll either listen to his instructor or get tendinitis and have to take a few week off playing.
@stitch As I am beginner I dont think that learning to bend only with pinky is bad… but I could be wrong. For me just seemed much more profitable in future to learn it with pinky and not looking for “shortcuts”. I just was not sure about correct sound and could not figure out what is wrong… tried capo and things like that and it sounded still pretty… like dying animal.
Edit: Ou I am rereading your comment and you are saying learning it as beginner. So you think would be better to learn it right now with his easier method and later then focus on pinky only? As when I wont be that new into bending? I am just trying to find best way for future Mike.
@jjw I can do bare F but I also learn to use thumb over neck to play F like Tommy Emmanuel… because in Freight Train and many songs in this style you got more finger freedom for melody notes. It kinda works for me in Freight Train which I “beginnerly” got in my fingers.
How pretty that song is!
Yes, Tommy Emmanuel seems to play it pinky only and Tim Van Roy explains very well!
Hey Michal, it seems I only need to follow you and you’ll lead me to plenty of great stuff to learn!
I think your bending with pinky only is not far off the goal!
I found for myself that in a not so long time (something like 2-4 weeks), I could bend farther with regular practice if you prefer the pinky only technique.
Or get a tad lighter strings if you plan to bend often.
And - you remind me of an artist I appreciate a lot - singer-songwriter from Québec, Canada. Lots of nice music and his lyrics are great. Daniel Bélanger. Now, he got a bit older… https://youtu.be/3LoaJtN2KnY?feature=shared
@domi7 Thank you. I need to give it few really focused days and I am pretty sure it will get better. I just was not sure if the problem is exactly in the “lenght” of bend or not. This song has, I think 4 bridges, so it is more complex than Freight Train… at least in my eyes. And that is the place where I remember you from! I posted Freight Train recently and you were here. I really like how close is this community. Also I can see “jjw” is always here for me too.
I really appreciate talking about things like this. Having more angles of view is always important for me.
Thanks for nice words from you, that is really something for me, because I am still beginner and I am sure this song will get me stuck for some weeks… maybe more realistic for months. But of course stay tunned! Sometimes I update my YouTube about what I am working on.
That guy Daniel plays great. I can see why he reminds me to you.
@Alexeyd Maybe I would like to tag you here sir, I can remember our fingerstyle zoom few months ago and I would like to know your POV about bending strings, because you take it more from classical view. If you got time. Thanks.
All true, except it won’t work for this particular arrangement. You can’t use any other finger here or rotate you wrist. Just pure pinky weightlifting.
My POV: don’t use Tim Van Roy’s hack if you don’t have to. Bend with your pinky, just do it harder. Try using less bent pinky and push the string from down up.
And if it doesn’t work after a couple of months - use Tim’s approach. This is not an essential technique, I struggle to think of another piece that employs it.
@Alexeyd Thank you for your opinion to this. I was trying to look if someone use pinky bend in Freight Traint, but I could not find it, so you are right… there is not many places where is this bend used, but in my experience everything is connected and learning it here for this song will somehow help me in future. Maybe it will inspire me to find similar bend in different songs. Thank you.
Watching that tutorial over and over… I can remember I got different recent topic and that is about alternate tunning.
I think about… if I go on my guitar half step down on all strings, place capo on 1st fret… could it help with string tension so it would be easier to bend that? Just for first days. I am using 11(gauge, not kind of guitar ) strings right now.
I think it should be logical that there is less tension in strings so it should be easier to bend and also I would stay in same key, because I would use capo.
For me (and this is personal taste), I don’t want to fool around with different tunings and capos. However, I use 10 gauge strings, which probably helps more than lowering the tuning. I can’t discern any change in tone with the lighter strings and even if I did, I wouldn’t care. Super light strings is the way to go!
When it comes to bending, I think the capo negates most of the lower string tension effect.
I would rather suggest you tune your guitar half (or whole) step lower and work off the relative pitches.
You won’t be able to compare each note in an absolute fashion because you’re tuned down but you’ll have lower tension to train.
