Another Whole Tone Bend

This is a great blues guitar bend, and another way to use this technique. You can also use it in other genres of music too, and with other techniques. This one is a whole tone bend, and is derived from the pentatonic scale. That’s why it works so well with the blues, but I use this often no matter what I’m playing. In this guitar article I’ll tell you how to do this, and make it easier to do with some tips.

The first tip is a way to give you more strength, and control over the bend. All you do is put your middle finger, in the fret before the one you’re bending in. Then you have two fingers to push the bend up, and hold it too. The next tip is to use the index finger to block the other strings, and it goes in the fret before the one where your middle finger is. You just want to lay it across the strings, but don’t press down. This is just in case you happen to hit some other strings, which can make the bend sound sloppy.

We’ll do this one in the eighth fret, and this bend works with a D chord. First put your ring finger in the tenth fret, on the second string. Remember what this note sounds like, because that is the pitch you’ll be bending the string up to. Now play the note in the eighth fret, and push the string upward until you match the note in the tenth fret. The note in the eighth fret is a G, and that is the fourth note of the D scale. You’re bending the string up a whole step to the fifth note of the scale, which is an A note. After you get the bend up to the pitch of the note in the tenth fret, release it back to the original position. Remember you want to get the bend up to pitch without overbending, and with practice you’ll get better at it.

When you get used to this, try going back to the F note in the sixth fret on the second string, after releasing the bend. Then to the D note in the seventh fret on the third string. You can also move this up, or down the neck using the musical alphabet.

JD Jarrell teaches blues guitar tutorials at guitartricks.com