Bends

ditchboy

I’m trying to nail Shine on you crazy diamond which has more bends in than any other song I’ve tried to learn so I’m not great at them. The issue I’m having is when I’m bending up you can hear my nail strike the string above and it rings out through the amp. What am I doing wrong. I don’t have long nails but will trimming them right down help? 

maharg101

Try to get "under" the string by angling the finger doing the bending down a bit, so that the nail would be above the height of the adjacent string. In this way, a big enough bend would "scoop up" and mute the adjacent string. Sometimes you want to let the adjacent string ring out too, to "dirty" the note.

If this is hard to achieve with practice, it might be that the action on your guitar is too low for you to get "under" the string.

viz

When you say bending “up”, you mean upwards, away from the earth, towards the sky, towards the bass strings, yes?

Are you perhaps putting your finger down too perpendicularly to tFB? You need to have a bit more of the fleshy pad pf your finger on the string so when you bend, your nail is nowhere near the string next to it. 

ToneControl

doesn't sound quite the same, but I prefer to slide up to some of the notes, personal taste really, I like the solid note at the top

depends if you want to replicate the original or play something that works for you

I do play with some of the mad bends on this sometimes, but I don't really like some of the wobbly bits (in the original as well as my playing)

DG is probably my favourite player, and this track does sound sublime, I just think it would sound better with less of those extreme bends 

viz

This is bending a perfect 4th on the G string. 

ditchboy

viz said:

When you say bending “up”, you mean upwards, away from the earth, towards the sky, towards the bass strings, yes?

Are you perhaps putting your finger down too perpendicularly to tFB? You need to have a bit more of the fleshy pad pf your finger on the string so when you bend, your nail is nowhere near the string next to it. 

Yes that’s what I meant. And yes based on that picture above I think I’m trying to bend more with the tip than the pad. 

digitalkettle

viz said:

This is bending a perfect 4th on the G string. 

Looks like a perfect fifth on the table!

Roland

ditchboy said:

… based on that picture above I think I’m trying to bend more with the tip than the pad. 

Be careful doing that. In my early days I tore the skin under my nail by pushing sideways with an upright finger tip. Flatten your finger, and where possible support the bend with other fingers

guitars4you

ToneControl said:

doesn't sound quite the same, but I prefer to slide up to some of the notes, personal taste really, I like the solid note at the top

depends if you want to replicate the original or play something that works for you

I do play with some of the mad bends on this sometimes, but I don't really like some of the wobbly bits (in the original as well as my playing)

DG is probably my favourite player, and this track does sound sublime, I just think it would sound better with less of those extreme bends 

That is my approach TBH - Maybe as I also listen a lot to sax players - Maybe my technique and as you say a 'solid note' at the end - I have a good vibrato, but to long sliding to the note means my bends are not adequate, but I don't get hung up about it

If playing 12 bar/blues etc I tend to go with the old 30's/40's 50's black blues approach with 1/4 note bends as well - But that is in many ways a different story - If I'm trying to nail a melodic phrase then I slide and nail the right note 

A poor bend sounds awful - A slide is never wrong - Same applies to GM and still got the blues etc etc

ditchboy

Snapped a brand new high e string on my tele last night trying to bend up a whole tone. I couldn’t quite get it up to a full tone and was probably getting just past halfway then “pop” nearly had my eye out! 

PAL

I think there are two things here. If you use a higher action there is a chance your finger can go under the sting as you have
  described so if a higher action is your preference you could try damping the lower strings with your hand.
  Hoe this helps.

jaymenon

The palm of your right hand also comes into play - to mute the other strings

susbemol

Something else you may find useful is practising bends while checking with a tuner. The goal is obviously to be able to do it by ear but the tuner can provide useful info on things that can be improved.

The number of guitarists that seem to often bend flat/sharp without being aware of it is unbelievable.

nero1701

ditchboy said:

Snapped a brand new high e string on my tele last night trying to bend up a whole tone. I couldn’t quite get it up to a full tone and was probably getting just past halfway then “pop” nearly had my eye out! 

I had this quite recently on my 335, it broke at the tuning peg on a locking tuner. I've swapped the locking tuners back for regular ones as it wasn't the first time that it had happened.

wjpp

Even after all the years of playing my bends still suck big time especially above the 12 fret. It’s often over/under and it frustrates the hell out of me. I just can seem to nail them each time. Every other one seems a bit out. I recently moved over to 10s and that’s helped a lot but makes for shorter practices when playing lead.

Any tips how I can consistently get a good bend? 

pintspiller

It gets better the more you do. Even if you're not consciously catching on what's happening or how to change, your body will likely sort itself out.

I was forever getting fingers stuck or nails caught for the first couple of years. I DO like to keep nails short now, and playing guitar helps remind me to do it too. LOL. But I've got nail psoriasis and they would break and get caught on a lot of things at times if they aren't cut close.

Grangousier

Any tips how I can consistently get a good bend? 

Practise them in isolation - Starting as low as you can comfortably do it, play scales up and down bending up to the next note (so C bending up to D, then D bending up to E, E up to F and so forth). Do it with a metronome at 60 or so. It only takes a bit of work to help all over. 

(For me, the C there was third fret, fifth string. YMMV. Don't hurt your fingers - they will get stronger.)

BillDL

wjpp said:

.... I just can seem to nail them each time. Every other one seems a bit out. I recently moved over to 10s and that’s helped a lot but makes for shorter practices when playing lead.

Any tips how I can consistently get a good bend? 

Are you switching between different scale length guitars while practicing, eg. Fender scale one day and Gibson scale the next?

If so, I would suggest that you concentrate as much as you can on getting your bends nailed on one scale length rather than switching.  10s on a Fender scale will be tauter than 10s on a Gibson.  With tauter strings the string will be a little bit harder to bend but reaches pitch a bit quicker so you don't have to push it sideways as much.  With looser strings it's easier to bend but you have to push the string a bit further to reach the same pitch.  Switching between scale lengths can confuse your muscle memory and the distance and pressure you expect to have to use will be different between guitars.

wjpp

Yeah. Not only scale lengths but also 9s/10s . I need to restring one of them .