Learn a Few Guitaristic Pitch Bend Techniques

There is so much to study and absorb about pitch bend technique, and we have been looking to guitar players for a number of columns now for inspiration. This month I’d like to share a few of my favorite techniques picked up from our six-stringed brethren.

Bend, Re-Bend, And Release

A great way to “milk” a bend is to hold it up and then do a slight re-bend up into the pitch. You do this by bending up into shows the basic idea. Play a G and bend up into an A, and add a little bit of vibrato. Then while still holding the A bring the bend mechanism back approximately a half-step and bend back up into the A. Try this with various bend speeds: first make all your re-bends very fast, then try varying them. For , try making each re-bend progressively slower than the last, holding the last note and again adding some vibrato.