That’s the theory covered then ! 
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The idea is that you bend up with your hand, hold the bend and then drop it down to the original note with the trem not by releasing the bend and then drop the bend down so that it drops lower than the original note but only momentarily bringing back up to the original note by releasing the trem. I would demonstrate it if I had a guitar with a trem!
You can do the same thing just with the trem by doing an up bend a full tone, then drop it down back through the original note to down a full tone BUT your trem must be full floating to do this, i.e.your trem needs to be set to give a full note bend up and down as a minimum.
It’s quite usual to be like this the more you’re restricted to a few notes but look past the ‘only 3 notes’ idea, you have octaves of those notes and as you can have a bend you can use a passing note by using a bend or hammer on, tap or let down from that note.
Look at resolving by using the ‘question / answer’ idea; questions end on a rising note, answers end on a dropping note; sometimes resolving to a root note may mean dropping down an octave just like the end of a question may mean going up an octave. Another useful idea is ending the question phrase with a cut off bend - it can add drama as it doesn’t have to end on a root note!
Hopefully that’s some food for thought!
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Ah, got you, Darrell.
I’d have to experiment with this. Firstly, to check if it is fully floating … it is … and also what range I can adjust pitch up and down.
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@TheMadman_tobyjenner @DavidP @Mari63
It’s been great following this guitar challenge and how the takes are evolving with every round. I think @CT sums it up really nicely:
I’m looking forward to the next round.
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I haven’t caught up with this whole post. I honestly can’t do this exercise though. Kind of just wanting to say that. It’s been great using it to procrastinate, but I admit being defeated for the time being.
I can do a minimum of 4 notes. My brain needs the 4th to resolve those three notes… or something. It’s like tapping shave-and-a-haircut over and over and OVER! I gotta tap the 2 cents back at those 3 F-ing notes so whoever’s knocking the phrase shuts up… or something. (Best I can explain it. I just have to use another note at some point soon after using those 3 notes a couple times so I stop annoying myself)
Where I’m at skill-wise, I am just not ready for this. It’s been fun trying though. Trying, helped me learn some stuff, and that all dribbles down into everything else eventually.
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Rebecca
Don’t forget, you do have 4 notes, its just you only fret the R 3b and 4 then bend to the 5. But hey no problem to come back to this later on down the road but cool you have even given it a try.
James was that a compliment, I wasn’t sure ! I could have fished out the ones that went into my recycle bin but they were grinding the system down. 
I read it as a compliment. I think he meant repository rather than bin.
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The improv bin may indeed be rather imprecise language, but in reality it is a bin of joy that folks can pull cool nuggets from. 
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OK so here’s my “first” attempt, although I have had many attempts to record which haven’t worked well due to technical challenges. I have been trying this for a few weeks and they are outside my learning lessons at this point, but here it is for your pointers and comments . Cheers
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Well done, Phil. I think making that ‘first attempt’ recording and sharing it is one of the hardest things we can do.
I liked the way you explored a range of different techniques, and licks. You also avoided the first-timer pitfall that most of us fall into of playing and playing without pausing to take a breath.
We are ultimately trying to ‘say something’ with our solos, with notes being like letters, that we combine to make words and phrases (to borrow Justin’s metaphor. And then we can use different techniques to avoid what we saying sounding monotous, just like when we speak. So leaving pauses for effect, playing louder and softer, mixing up length of notes, and using techniques, like bending, sliding, hammering-on, flicking-off.
But I think it all starts slowly getting familiar with the notes, techniques etc. So again, well done on the first attempt. Keep spending time regularly in your practice and you will become more fluent over time.
One thing to be really mindful of is bending to pitch. The bend you are making in this exercise is the whole tone bend from the note D to E. I know from experience that is far easier said than done. Just another thing to work on.
Bravo!
@philsmith
Well done, Phil, on taking up the guitar challenge. I’m with @DavidP, I liked the way you explored a range of techniques and licks. And as you mention some of those techniques haven’t been introduced at that point in the beginners course. So kudos for taking the bull by the horns and trying out some of those techniques. Beyond my play grade to give you any meaningful pointers and comments. I think this challenge is quite a tricky one and you did well. It’s a big thumbs up from me.
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Good start Phil, nice to see you using different techniques and allowing some breathing space. I noticed that the backing track you were using was a standard 12 bar blues, eek I need to check what I uploaded if it was one of mine. The note limitation might make the exercise harder played over 3 and not 2 chords but I’d have to examine that.
I had to go all the way back to Shane’s post to explain why it work so well with just the 2 chords.
Well done.
OK peeps my bad. Guess I should opened the hood and looked a little closer. The Slow Blues Backing track is as I said above a standard 12BB, so I have deleted that folders. All the others are based on Am and D7 as per the exercise. MHA.
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Another way to look at those 4 notes is as part of the A minor pentatonic scale. R, b3, 4, 5. So, it’s going to work fine over a 12-bar blues in A (or A minor, obviously). All 3 root notes of the I-IV-V (A, D, E) are available, which lets you follow the changes nicely.
Quite agree John but it gets away from the A Dorian starting point, using the i and IV.
Hence the picked notes being A C D and the bend to E but I get your point, just another exercise.
A quick question about recording. I’d like to join the fun, but i’m no good at recording. I tried with my phone, lying between my PC speakers and my amp but no dice. It sounds like i’m playing on a banjo.
I have some hardware, but that does not do video. And i’m not sure it will blend two tracks together too.
So how did you guys record yourself?
Gryt
Guess we all have different set ups.
For my tracks I am running the guitars through my POD Go multifx into a Xenyx Audio Interface that connects to the PC via USB. On the PC the AI feeds in my DAW Reaper and the audio is passed to OBS which I used to record audio and video. Only ever used a phone to record the odd acoustic recording so can’t offer much advice, as I have been using an AI of one form or another since I started recording. Initially in Audacity and then Reaper for just audio and latterly for video as well.
Hope that helps
@GrytPipe
GP, my approach for the recordings you see in this Challenge is really simple. The audio is all from my amp and the recording is made with my phone. The phone is placed on my music stand and positioned far enough back from where I am sitting next to the amp to create the appropriate view of me playing.
I do have to watch the master volume on the amp. I’ve noticed some clipping on the recorded audio when the amp is turned up too loud. Which is not to an ear-bleeding, face-melting loudness but still too hot for the phone to handle.
I have noticed that the audio quality on a phone recording always seems better when recording a video with the phone camera than using some kind of audio-only recorder app. I’m not sure what you are doing, based on the mention of amp and pc speakers. If your amp has an aux input I suggest trying to use that to remove the need for the PC (I assume it is playing the backing). And try a video if you are only recording audio.