Bending and Vibrato

A piano plays a note and it is what it is. A guitar can push the note somewhere else, and that is most of what makes a guitar solo expressive.

Bending means pushing a string sideways across the fretboard while it rings, which raises its pitch. Use three fingers behind each other for strength, not just one, and rotate your wrist rather than pushing with the fingertip. The target is a whole step, the same pitch as two frets higher, and the way to check is to play that higher fret first so your ear knows where it is going.

Vibrato is a small bend repeated quickly, wobbling the pitch after the note has sounded. Held notes without it sound dead. It is the last thing beginners add and the first thing listeners notice.

In the tab below, b means bend that note up a whole step, and the wavy line means add vibrato and let it ring.

A bend, then vibrato

Bend the ninth fret up a whole step. Then hold the tenth fret note and shake it. Then let the last note ring.

e
B
G
D
A
E

------------7---------|
-------10~------------|
--9b------------------|
----------------------|
----------------------|
----------------------|

This is a slow power ballad in B minor at 75 BPM — slow enough that a bend has time to arrive, which is exactly what you need while learning.

The box from lesson seven still applies: B minor pentatonic, seventh fret. Play very few notes and bend most of them.

If a bend sounds sour, it is almost always because it stopped short of pitch. Push further than feels correct.

B minor at 75 BPM. Few notes, most of them bent, all of them held.