String Bending for Beginners

Hello guys, welcome back to the Beginner Guitar Lessons blog. I believe you have downloaded or watched the Blues Guitar Lesson provided by Griff Hamlin and some of you might find difficulties in bending the strings. Here are some tips to help you bend the strings easier.

Beginners With Electric Guitars

Doing string bending on electric guitar is easier compared to the acoustic guitars, however you may still find it difficult to do. Try to change the electric guitar strings with the lightest gauge available, i.e. the 0.008″ gauge set. Thinner strings are much easier to bend but it gives less volume. Once you can do the string bending technique properly you can switch to thicker strings such as the 0.009″ or higher gauge sets. Note that changing guitar string gauge may need some adjustment on the guitar saddle as well, which part is located at the electric guitar bridge section. If you don’t know what to do with this adjustment please get help from a guitar technician.

Beginners With Acoustic Guitars

First of all don’t try to bend the strings of a classical guitar because you can hardly do it. Nylon strings are more flexible than steel strings and string bending technique may not work here.

For acoustic guitars with steel strings there are some tips I can give you to perform this technique easier:

- Find guitar with low action. Cheap guitars sometimes have high action that make them uncomfortable to play. If your guitar have a string action higher than 4mm (distance from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the 6th string) you may need to do some modification on the guitar saddle.
- Replace the acoustic guitar strings with the lowest possible string gauge. I even did a weird set up during my first time practicing this string bending technique. Here is my set up: I used 0.009″ electric guitar string on my first string (E). The second and third strings which are B and G were replaced by acoustic guitar strings E and B but tuned to B and G notes. By doing this I can play the guitar on standard tuning but with less guitar strings tension that will enable me to bend the strings easier. The rest strings used the standard strings which were D, A and E because we mostly bend the first three strings only. The other reason is bass strings are easier to bend so I did not replace them.

String Bending Problem

Sometimes it will be very difficult for you to bend the string up to the note you want, you may not reach the new pitch exactly. To overcome this you need to memorize the note, i.e if you want to bend a C note full step to D note you have to firstly know the pitch of the D note and memorize it otherwise you won’t get the pitch right.

Many beginners made mistake with their bending fingers including myself. You can use one finger only to bend a string but believe me it can hurt your finger easily. Always back up your bending finger with other finger(s) whenever possible. See this picture:

I bent the string using my ring finger but it was also supported with my other two fingers. By doing this way I can bend the string much easier. Try this and you will find that string bending is not as hard as it looks provided you know how to do it correctly.

To Your Guitar Success
-TJ-
Beginner Guitar Lessons Admin

Related posts:

1. Cheap Guitars
2. Acoustic Guitar Strings – What You Need to Know
3. Blues Guitar Lesson – 4 Notes Improvisation
4. Electric Guitar Strings Tips
5. Guitar Tapping Technique