Bending Rules Non-scale-note bends

The systematic approach from the previous two sections worked on the premise that any melodic bend should connect two adjacent notes of a scale. In practice, most of the bends you hear in conventional playing (microtonal inflections excepted) will indeed prove to be consistent with this theory. But rules are made to be broken and you can expand your vocabulary considerably by connecting non-adjacent scale tones within a single bending motion.

This section is mostly based around E Dorian (E-F#- G-A-B-C#-D). Over the page is a neck diagram (Ex. 14) illustrating where to find all the possible instances of those notes.

Let’s start with a little trick that should look and sound familiar to most readers. Lick 15