The Bend
The bend is a technique which involves pushing a string upwards (or downward), which will raise the pitch of the fretted note being played. The most common bend is that of a tone (2 frets), however, bends of one fret or three frets (or more) are sometimes used. An example of a two fret bend, from D to E, can be written in two ways:
Quick Bend (on the beat - count "one")
Slow Bend (count "one and" )
In this photograph 3 fingers are used to push the string upwards. The number of fingers used in a bend will depend upon the convenience and/or the position of the note you wish to bend.
The Reverse Bend
A reverse bend is played from the bent note, returning to the original note.
* As it is difficult at first to bend to the correct pitch, you should use very light gauge strings on your electric guitar to begin with. Later you may wish to experiment with heavier strings, as they produce a stronger tone.
When improvising, you should bend only to a note that is in the scale. This is very difficult, so you should first listen to the note you are going to bend to (to establish its pitch) and then attempt the bend, e.g., in the D to E bend example just given, play the E note first to establish its pitch and then attempt the bend.
This Rock lick uses a quick bend from D to E, followed by a slow reverse bend back to D.
In this exercise, each bend is held while the following note is played.
In this example, the note E on the second string is played at the same time as the bend on the third string.
Exercise 46 is a combination of the previous two exercises. For ease of playing, the first finger bars across the first and second strings as shown in the following photo.
