I would say yes. Check out two pics of Justin and two of yourself.
Check the plane of Jās hand and note the dropped outer edge of the palm (pointing away from the neck) plus the visible tip of his broken arrow tattoo.
Now note that rotation has lifted the outer edge of the palm and made the tattoo disappear from site. His hand is in an altered plane. The elbow is in the same place more or less.
The outer edge of your palm is parallel with the neck pre-bend here. The fingers are pointing at a decent angle in preparation.
Note that your elbow has pulled upwards taking your whole forearm with it, though in almost the exact same plane, the outer edge of your palm remains almost parallel to the neck indicating just a small amount of roatation and your fingers are flexed out though still at virtually the same angle.
You are pushing with fingers backed up by forearm raising rather than with fingers that are raised by a rotation of the wrist.
pics taken from this lesson
Hope it helps.
Richard
Youāve definitely got better David, the only things I would really point out is to make sure that you mute the string at the top of the bend unless it includes a let down, if you donāt it sounds like a donkey eeaw! Itās now down to practice and strengthening your hands to achieve whatās needed. If youāre not 100% about where the bend should go to maybe either use your tuner or possibly use a reference pitch from either your guitar or a keyboard, it all helps to develop your ear for pitch.
Keep going with it, youāre doing well!
no worries Richard. That said, I can handle it if you say your fulltone bend is still way way too flat or sharp to even get away with it in a blues context.
Noted on the muting at the top. Another tricky thing to time the mute right so you still get a note that rings rather than being strangled off.
I do try to use the tuner or pitch meter to help but the note shifts around a fair amount so it is better to use the ears. Just my ears are still in kindergarten
Appreciate the encouragement and affirmation of progress.
Re ānote that rings rather than being strangled offā thatās where vibrato comes in if the top note needs to ring out, itās quite difficult to hold pitch without it!
If you could convert the vibrato action around the 3 minute mark to a bend youād be on the money. That is the movement you are looking for. The early vibratos were similar to how you were bending as @Richard_close2u indicated. Which looked like you were pulling the elbow backwards. The palm / forearm rotation for vibrato is just quicker and faster. Watch that and try bending in the same manner, do it slow. Never would have thought of using SOTW but that looks like a fun exercise.
With regard to tone, as I said before hold the bend at the top and play the unison on the string below. Do micro adjustments to match the pitch. Check again and then look at where youāve bent to in relationship to the strings above. Then try bend back to that same visual reference using eyes and ears. In the real world you would not be string watching when bending but I have found it gives me a sense of how much movement is required and can get closer to the ball park more consistently. Notice the word closer, still WIP ! BTW if you can do that on an e string bend, let me know how you did it
On the muting that @DarrellW mentioned, try counting - bend 2 3 mute, bend 2 3 4 mute bend 2 mute and bend mute.
Hope that helps, amateur input as still learning myself.
No real input from me, David, although it does seem to me that the 5 licks part is improving, maybe even just for confidence. Using the Smoke on the Water riff is a great idea from Richard. I just recently made myself a playlist of songs with guitar riffs Iād like to learn, or relearn. If theyāre not focused around bends I could adapt them as you have, but I think Iāll start with Layla and work on the bends in that classic riff.
Iām at about a month of working on the Major Scale Maestro course, so itās probably time for me to post an update too, thanks for posting your own update to motivate me to think about that.
Hi David good to see you are keeping at it! Richard well summed it all up, if I am to say anything is to perhaps ask how much time you spend on those bends? Are you practicing every day or every now and then? When I was learning I made sure to spend 5 mins daily on bending sometimes a lot longer until finger tips were saying stop. Only when I made bending more decent I went with vibrato and after that vibrato while bending.
The reason I ask is that you really need to be doing it daily to get a good progress. Try holding a note for a few seconds longer, to me it looks like you are still struggling with a strength in your fingers plus as Richard pointed out working on your fretting hand positioning should help with that.
It is still a good progress however it just takes time thatās all. Patience and youāll get there
Thanks Adrian, Iād say I am not practising daily but perhaps more than every now and then. Probably something like 4-5 times a week, longer than 5 minutes. But does depend on how things go work wise. I am at peace with the slower progress that comes with such a practice routine.
4 days practice during the week, today and a video to review āprogressā. Concentrated on working rotation of the left hand. Eish (a South African expression that expresses frustration and concern) ā¦ itās tricky.
I thought I was better till I watched the video, but from some angles it looks better?
Certainly finding it easier to get that rotation going for vibrato on the first finger ā¦ now donāt go and spoil things by asking about the generating vibrato with the ringer finger.
Listening back I realise I ought to have switched the ceiling fan off for the recording part of the practice session.
Oh and I thought maybe it will be āeasierā if I stand and get that headstock angled up a bit as per all the players in @TheMadman_tobyjennerās gallery of legends demonstrating appropriate guitar positioning.
Luckily I had no expectations of being able to bend it like a bluesman in 2022
Now back to some OM rehearsal and then some other guitar fun ā¦
Vibrato action definitely getting there even if it is your first finger. As I said before and I am no expert, that is the same action you need for the bend. When bending you seem to be pulling back rather than rotating. Watch your shoulder on both actions. When you bend the shoulder goes up and your elbow up and back, as if you are pulling the strings up.
Contrast that with the rotation movement of the vibrato where the shoulder stays relaxed and the forearm and hand rotate. Definitely hitting the target tone more consistently.
Just a novice demo on my phone, so unplugged and little audio. Notice how my shoulder stays put and the forearm and wrist rotate but keep the same plane ie donāt move back or up. Expert advice will follow.
Thanks Toby, youāre legend. I do see what you mean. Definitely am struggling to maintain the same action when putting down the ring and middle finger for a bend. Every now and then it looked like there was more hand rotation but certainly have a looooooooooong way to go. But undeterred I shall keep at it and I am sure eventually it will click. Well I hope so
Notice (as I just reached out a dragged something off the rack) Iād not warmed up, so started with the vibrato before bending. I found that was also a good way to work into the bending action. When I first started it was brute force using finger strength but starting with the vibrato action and extending that to a semi tone, semi and a bit, then a bit more and then to a tone helped enforced that action. I still have to think about it but its becoming more natural.
I am also sure there must be a formula of which string to bend up to for semi and full tones, which I said the other day gives you a target but helps memorise the distance you need to move so it becomes automatic and that is definitely WIP for me !
@DavidP I can most definitely hear loads of improvement in the sound on your bends, you are hitting the target note a lot, significant improvement from the first & 2nd goes. With this and seeing how much targeted practice (or whatever you call it) is helping Iām going to start doing this exercise too.
I wouldnāt even have noticed your shoulder movement so technique wise I have nothing, but I am glad @TheMadman_tobyjenner showed what he was talking about, I can see what he means. I will pay attention to what I am doing as well.
Thanks for sharing your learning journey, itās really marvellous to see you progress. And it gives me hope as well!
I say the same things over and over (maybe new folk here hear them for the first time) but I think sharing the progress, learning with friends, has made a significant contribution to both the enjoyment and effectiveness of my musical adventures.
As Iāve said before, in southern Africa we have a saying āItās takes a village to raise a childā. Well, I think this Community raises up musicians.
And the willingness of people like Toby, to take time from their own practice time to make a video to try and help a fellow like myself is, reminds me again and again how special this Community is, how privileged we are. And like all privilege, it should not be taken for granted and flourishes as people give more than they get, so I have no regrets about the time I spend in the Community as part of my musical adventure.
OK, on a bit of a roll this morning, letās get back to bends, licks, and vibrato
Super encouraging to hear that you hear improvement, that gives me hope.
I call it ādeliberate practiceā. Not my term but taken (at least by myself) from Anders Erickson. Anybody interested can read a little more here.
I know it is all relative but I had to laugh reading this, this from you who is working at PW and already at the point where you donāt have to tell us that is what you are working at as we can hear unmistakably what you are playing. With folk who have pitch meters for ears telling you about pitch accuracy of your bends.
no worries Richard. That said, I can handle it if you say your fulltone bend is still way way too flat or sharp to even get away with it in a blues context.
