Wanting some stringbending excercises please

Stringmanipulator

Stringmanipulator

Power User
I wonder if any of you can recommend some string bending exercises,
specially with vibrato ?

I've got a brain ghost going on with this, been playing for 25 years on and off,
but a couple of years ago a friend told me he thought my bends and the vibrato
I put on them are way to fast ....

Didn't think so much of it at the time, but it has grown on me to be this brain ghost
so now I have screwed up my technique to the level I cannot do a decent bend at all
it seems ..... when doing the fulcrum wrist thingy I kind of go from no vibrator to a
too fast vibrato, having a very hard time to slow down and still have control

:)

any help would be gratefully appreciated

you all have a good one
 
Don't use your wrist as much and try using your fingers instead. I wouldn't say that it's a bad thing ether, it's what makes your fretting hand different then mine or your friends ;).
 
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Try being really specific, like "I want to be able to do those slow bluesy bends like Dave Gilmour" or "I want to cop Yngwie Malmsteen's Vibrato". Listen to an album or two of the artist, listening specifically for the technique you want to perfect. What makes theirs different to yours? What makes it unique?

Some things to look for:

Vibrato - How fast is it? How wide? Does it start immediately, or does it ramp up. Does it change rate or width over the course of the note? Is it consistent from note to note? Is it done with the left hand or the trem arm?

Bending - How long is the original note held before the bend starts? How fast does the bend reach its target note? Is there vibrato on the bent note? What kind of vibrato (see above)? How is the bent note released - silently, released as part of the same note, picked as a new note and released or something else?

That's all I could think of off the top of my head and it is probably overkill, but it should get you started thinking about the mechanics involved in your favourite player's style. I might add that IMHO you should spend some time thinking about this stuff and mimicking someone you admire, then try to stop thinking and analysing and just play :)
 
A fast wild vibrato is good. Not for every situation, but it's a handy thing to be be able to whip out at the right time.

That said, just uhhh.... practice. If you want to get better at bends, just sit there practicing bending. Make yourself some little exercises that are fun/interesting to play that really work on your bends. If you need to work on pitch, you could first play the fretted note you want to bend up to so you have a clear pitch reference to aim for when you bend up from a step or however far below. Practice pre-bends, where you're bending the note to the right pitch before even picking it. Practice bending a note up a whole step, and then instead of bringing it back down to the normal fretted pitch, bring it down just a half step... maybe bend it back up another whole step from there (i.e. 3 semitones from the fretted note). Again, if you have to, play those notes fretted beforehand if the pitch reference helps while you're working on it.

For vibrato on bends... I'd say the first thing would be to make sure you've got it down on normal fretted notes, without any bending. If you don't have the full range of control you want there, adding bending in isn't going to help. You can practice vibrato with a metronome. Set it to whatever tempo, let's say 120bpm, and do your little bend up on the beat, and bring it back down on the off-beat. You'd probably want to aim more for a smooth constant movement though, rather than a robotic bend-release-bend-release motion. And of course, practice at different tempos, and different widths of vibrato. A slow subtle vibrato isn't always what's needed, so you want to be able to whip out whatever vibrato you want on any given note. The same kind of practising of course can be applied when you start adding in bends.

Speaking of vibrato on bends, a nifty thing is instead of playing say, the 15th fret on the B string and adding vibrato, play the 13th fret pre-bent up a whole step. That way you can get a nice vibrato that goes both sharp and flat from the note.
 
What I do is set a metronome for say, 150 bpm.
Then I pick a scale and bend into each note.
This gives you whole and half step bends.
I then apply vibrato for 4 or 8 bars per bend.
I would use fingers 2 and 3 alternately as this strengthen each finger.
10 minutes a day has made a huge difference to both my bending and vibrato.
 
Bending and Vibrato is - IMO - your voice. This requirement for this technique is time and taste. Your voice is developed over time. MY advice to students that want to learn more of this area is to emulate the sounds that they favor. There is some bending and over-bending and vibrato that I like and don't like. Study the ones you like!
 
Any advice to keep your calluses while you do these things? Things like "just play the damn thing" does not count.I play over 14 years everyday and my calluses are gone if i decide to practice bends. Ocasional bending is fine, but if i spend more time one it- my callusses gets destroyed.
 
To the OP, try playing without bends - period. Practice without doing any bends or vibrato or the like - perfect pitch spot on. Run after run. Trust me, a couple hours of this for a few days, and your bending/vibrato will get reset.
 
pauliusmm said:
Any advice to keep your calluses while you do these things? Things like "just play the damn thing" does not count.I play over 14 years everyday and my calluses are gone if i decide to practice bends. Ocasional bending is fine, but if i spend more time one it- my callusses gets destroyed.
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Lotion brother. Your callouses are probably dry and/or cracked. In the colder months I have the need of a gentle hand moisturizer (Vaseline Intensive care lotion) that leaves my hands soft, smooth without smelling pretty. :p

The dry cracks on the side of my nail that run to the tip of my finger are what kill me.
 
Stringmanipulator said:
I wonder if any of you can recommend some string bending exercises,
specially with vibrato ?

I've got a brain ghost going on with this, been playing for 25 years on and off,
but a couple of years ago a friend told me he thought my bends and the vibrato
I put on them are way to fast ....

Didn't think so much of it at the time, but it has grown on me to be this brain ghost
so now I have screwed up my technique to the level I cannot do a decent bend at all
it seems ..... when doing the fulcrum wrist thingy I kind of go from no vibrator to a
too fast vibrato, having a very hard time to slow down and still have control

:)

any help would be gratefully appreciated

you all have a good one
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One of the best things you can do on a mechanical level is vibrato in time with a metronome. Start with eighth notes, then eighth triplets, then sixteenths, then sixteenth triplets. As far as bending goes, bending into unison notes is a great way to get your pitch happening.
 
I cannot, for the life of me, bend upwards and apply vibrato with any amount of skill whatsoever, thanks to an old swordfighting injury.
 
DNW said:
What? :|
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Really, truely.

Here's picture of some friends, with our mentor, who passed away in February at 90 years old. I took a knife and sword-making apprenticeship from him starting when I was 12 or 13, and learned to fight at the same time.
The old man in the wheelchair was a martial arts instructor, weaponsmith, and Korean war vet. The guy in bright armor is his prized student. The Asian girl standing next to him was his GF.

When I was 17, I got my hands pretty bashed up, and it severely limits my playing dexterity.

group.jpg
 
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Womac911 said:
Really, truely.

Here's picture of some friends, with our mentor, who passed away in February at 90 years old. I took a knife and sword-making apprenticeship from him starting when I was 12 or 13, and learned to fight at the same time.
The old man in the wheelchair was a martial arts instructor, weaponsmith, and Korean war vet. The guy in bright armor is his prized student. The Asian girl standing next to him was his GF.

When I was 17, I got my hands pretty bashed up, and it severely limits my playing dexterity.

View attachment 15583
Click to expand...

...




...




... nope, I'm still thinking, "What?" :|
 
DNW said:
...

...
... nope, I'm still thinking, "What?" :|
Click to expand...

There's a Youtube video of the event that picture was taken at about two weeks before he passed away.
I highly recommend watching the first few minutes, and then from about 13: till 20: minute mark. He talks a little about why he teaches what he teaches, and did what he did.
Skip around a bit after that... just after his introduction, there's bit of Tai Chi Chuan demonstration... after the 20 minute mark, it goes to the more hard-hitting fights.

He was a truly unique person, and spent a large part of his life helping younger generations become outstanding people and sharing his knowledge and skill...including me. If you've noticed the huge influx of the Boutique Pickup market over the last 15 years, it's because 90% of them have come to me for guidance at one time or another... and I shared my knowledge with them, directly because of him.

 
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