Rachel Coles - Learning Log

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101

You’re not wrong your LL is for uploading your guitar journey for constructive help. That being said Boris is not wrong.
Bending strings is a very importaint skill and I hate to sound like a broken record but they need to be done right or they sound really bad and can ruin something good very fast.

You need to listen to your bends and get them to pitch then once you can hit the note you want then use them in music.
One thing I’m quessing your not doing is playing the note you want to hit them bending up to that note.

Every bend has 4 notes you can hit cleanly. 1) a curl, 2) a semitome, 3) a full tone, and the hardest one 4) a full tone and a half. Some guitarist can even do 2 full tone bends.

Just like any note you need to hit those pitches clean every time. If you don’t it will sound very bad.

You have come a long way in the passed month but your really need to get you bending down. The more you play them wrong the longer it will take you to get them right.

Please take this as I’m trying to help you with your journey. Proper bends are very important and take time to become natural to you playing.
The most important thing to practice is to listen. You’re note just learning bends you’re training your ears to hear the correct note so your fingures can hit the note you want. It’s also learning timing.

Justin has lessons on doing bend properly and to pitch, if you have already done them it would be a good idea to review them again.

102

Hi Rick,

I don’t mind feedback and help but everyone keeps saying my bends are not right, but no-one is saying if I’m bends e.g. on the above song are only semitones instead of tones or whatever. So I don’t know where I am going wrong. I listened back to the new video and I did notice on one section of bending I think I did only a semitone. Also has my timing improved?

103

You need to know the note you are bending to. The easiest way to do this is start on the first note the check by playing the note you are going to bend to.

Play the target note then bend to that note. This is where listening is so important. You have to hit the bent note and hear it and hold it there for the right amount of time.

Now there are a few ways to release the bend back to the fretted note.
You can release it slowly or quickly or kill it at the top of the bend.

A good example is the opening phase of the video. You start off pretty good the bends are getting there they just need to be held a little at pitch.

At around the 15 second mark it falls apart a bit. I understand your trying to do a vibrato as well but this is an other skill best left until you can hit the bend correct to pitch. From there on it doesn’t get any better.
I think one of the problems is your using you fingers to do your bends. You need to use your hand.

You never did answered my question about watching Justin’s lessons on bending. I have a feeling you haven’t or you didn’t practice doing bends to pitch.

At the beginning of the video your timing is pretty good but by the end you’re rushing and trying to catch up.
Over all I think you are doing really well for the amount of time you’ve put in.

1 Like
104

I have trouble hitting the right pitch with bends, too. One thing that helps is to use a tuner that you can see while you are playing. I have a little clip-on one. I play the initial note, and then bend to the target note and watch the tuner to confirm I have it on pitch. I’ll do that over and over to get it in my ear and under my fingers. It’s not something that comes easily to me so I have to work at it.

105

I have to disagree with this. You need to use you ears and hit the target note not your eyes.

Here’s a good lesson for both of you

https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/bending-technique-in-blues-bl-403

1 Like
106

Hi Rachel.

If we exclude people from my BLIM study group who posted only in that closed subforum, I met my first community member in real life (pub, of course) last week. He is one of the oldest members here. One of the topics we discussed is how much traffic there is currently, but still little constructive feedback in the current state of the forum. I saw your post, and partially driven by that conversation, I decided to give you my completely honest opinion.

I agree with you, I never said you should upload only polished pieces. There is a huge benefit in recording yourself at any stage and getting feedback. I asked the question below simply to get your answer.

Question:

Answer:

I got the answer (and the new upload) which confirmed my thinking - you think there is a “slight exaggeration on some of the bends”. I believe you don’t hear properly the necessary pitch, but also that you don’t have this tune completely in your mind. We all went through the same process with bending. The solution is to listen a lot and practice the basics. That was my honest feedback.

My original message above might have sounded harsh, but I genuinely wanted to help you with my suggestions, not to put you down as you seem to imply with the above.
Apart from few teachers and few experienced players, we are all students here and our feedback might be more or less valuable. Having said this, I spent numerous hours listening (GM studio version, GM live versions, covers), analysing, reading about and playing this song. That is why I felt confident to offer you advice. It is up to you to figure our what to filter and what to accept.

Few resources you might want to check/listen:

  1. Kasper’s comment is definitely worth reading
    Solo 1 - Still Got The Blues

  2. Great reading in the introduction on how he approaches fast licks
    Test-driving my new LP with Still Got The Blues (video)

  3. Great live cover - notice how both this guy and Kasper don’t put any vibrato at the top of the bends. To me, this resembles GM album original version.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=040ZVsrv82A

  4. Incredible player - another cover (full lesson). Notice how he plays wide vibrato at the top of bends! Different flavour of the song.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZp6chNS0MI

  5. The legend himself live - he adds vibrato at the top of some bends. He doesn’t play it exactly the same each time live.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O_YMLDvvnw&t=253s
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m7NVFhbx1I
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtmV2I4Fl7Q
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoYfTTFA-0k

107

I’m an independent observer here, and in my opinion, the level and type of criticism this log receives is atypical and smacks of a pile-on. It’s been going on for a while.

Most of the feedback on this forum is over-complimentary. You certainly cannot say that in this case.

1 Like
108

Yes, but you need to train your ear as well.

A lot of people—especially people who are new to the guitar—have trouble discerning that a bend might be a few cents off, or even the difference between a semitone and a whole tone. Using a tuner can help you get that in your ear in a way that will give very concrete feedback. In time, you won’t need it.

Just trying to help Rachel out. There are a lot of ways to do things with this wonderful instrument and what works for some folks won’t work for others. Thought I’d offer something that has helped me. :man_shrugging:

109

We’re trying to help Rachel and the last thing she need is a bunch of compliments that won’t help her learn anything.

She has indicated that she want honest feed back and that’s what we’re trying to give her.

2 Likes
110

that is the problem !

thats the thing you need to practice first before playing !
Train your ears
you should know what note you ‘re targeting when you bend

go back to BLIM unit 1 : pitch perfect
do the exercise over and over

Its plain to see that you love playing Blues music but as long as you re not able to identify on your own the notes you re targeting when bending , you ll never be able to play any song correctly
for the moment you bend and just hope for the best without any clear idea of how it should sound it the end
its not a problem of tone or semi tone
it sounds like : the note is around here but I dont know where

so really , everybody here is trying to help you and telling you the same thing
work on ear training !
work on pitch perfect bends !

the moment you ll get it , you ll make amazing progress

1 Like
111

Hi All,

I think I need to just bring this discussion down a notch before it gets out of hand and someone says something…

A few things:
I am all for feedback as I’ve stated on many occasions and I stand by that, no matter how harsh or honest.
I’m also a firm believer in being blunt and to the point, it makes so things so much easier to grasp and understand.
Sometimes it does feel like, since I started this Learning Log, it’s been a constant flow of ‘constructive’ feedback on my videos and very little compliments/encouragement. Please I am in no way saying sugar coat my playing ability or anything but it does get a little discouraging when it’s a constant negative all the time.
Just once in a while, we’d all like a little compliment e.g.

*Hey, improvement since the last time, but still need to work on your bends, still using your fingers instead of hand, out by a semitone on the bends (go back and analyse the video and work on your ear training) and the timing is off in certain parts.

Now to me that is perfect, to the point, tells me where I am going wrong, what I need to work on etc. You can even throw in, the playing was terrible or whatever, I’m old and ugly enough to take it.

Short and sweet and to the point. You can add links to things for me to watch to help me with pleasure. I do watch them all and take them onboard.
(to answer a question…Yes, I did watch the bending exercise and have been practicing them. I also find, practicing by learning songs it also a good way.)

As for the timing, I just have one question because it keeps bugging me…
Different websites, applications have a different tempo (bpm) for the song
e.g. Songsterr 76bpm 12/8 Guitar Pro 52bpm 12/8 (I use GP) and the original between 72-80bpm and they are have different takes on the song, how to play the chords etc.

In Summary

  • I will keep on uploading my videos, I am here to learn from everyone
  • I appreciate all comments, feedback on my playing, no matter how good or bad, yes don’t get me wrong, sometimes it does get me down but I am a strong independent women and I can handle it.
  • Please keep giving the feedback, it does help me. Just keep it precise and to the point, add links etc. I always look into everything from the comments. (See above example). If I have any questions or want more clarification, I will ask.

So overall, please keep the comments/feedback coming in, it does help me, more than you know.
My jamming buddy, who has also done the BLIM and been playing for 20yrs has also had a quick look as the video and said the bends still need work. We’re going to go over it next week in our jamming session. He did say. I’ve come along way in under 2yrs of playing guitar.

I think I’ll upload a video next of my strumming practise :rofl: Give you all something to have a laugh about and comment on.

Keep playing and having fun while doing so.

112

Don’t worry about BPM. Slow the backing track or GP down to as slow as you need it to be to play the phases correctly. Practice each phases one at a time and most importantly Listen to each and every note.
How long each note is held and how much space is between them. The spaces are the music in most cases. They sets the mood, feel, groove what ever you want to call it.

Another thing you need to be able to do is count or at least feel the groove.
I haven’t taken BLIM so can’t comment on what Justin teaches in it but I have watched every lesson Justin has put out in the past 16 years and the common message in his lesson is to Slow Down Get It Right and Use Your Ears.
I don’t know how to explain to someone how to listen to pitch but Deborah mentioned a Bend Perfect lesson in BLIM. I thinking listening woulg be the lesson.

I’ve also mentioned how far you have come in this passed month a few times in my comments. That’s as fluffy as I get. I also think with enough time and practice you will be a very good even great musician, but it takes time. Once you get haw to hear pitch you will leap forward in your impro very quickly to the next hurdle.

Get your jam buddy to show you how to bent to pitch and hold it. That is if he can do it correctly. If he can’t that’s something the two of you could work on together.