Adrian Legg Help Page

String Bends

The latest version is from Keith Ayers in Somerset, England. It came by regular mail, and is worth sharing here because it comes up to often. He says:-

"I'm having a bit of trouble playing descending bends that follow a partthat's played straight, more so if it's two string bends, got any tips for me before I go mad?" Descending bends have to be applied to the string silently; that is, a bend must be pushed up to pitch by feel before it is sounded. It is even better if you can mute it completely before you pick it. This requires that you know exactly how the pitch of any bent note feels on your left hand fingers, and knowing this requires practise, bending and listening until you teach your muscles exactly how any pitch feels, or how much pressure it requires. This is no different to what a woodwind player has to learn about embouchure.Exactly the same applies to double bends, except that the feel is slightly more complex and involves more muscles. If you're having trouble putting them on quickly enough to slip into a flow of notes, it means simply that you need a little more practise getting the feel right.

Sorry, no short-cuts. I'll take a closer look at double bends in a week or two.

Adrian Legg

Double Bends

I think the trick with double-bends is, as with finger-picking, NOT to think of separate note or lines, but to think of single, whole, complex chunks. Let's start with a practical example. This and all that follow assume, of course, a plain third string. Place your l.h. second finger on f at fret 6 on the second string, and your l.h. third finger on d at fret 7 third string. If you give them both a healthy shove towards the bass side of the fingerboard, you'll notice that, give or take a few cents, it's pretty easy to get a tone raise on each string simultaneously. When I look at my left hand fingers, I notice that the third finger around the second joint automatically moves towards the second finger, and the little finger locks in behind the third, but clear of the strings. In this way, my whole left hand forms a solid block under tension from the bent strings, each finger is supported and is easy to control. Relative pitch between the two strings is controlled by controlling the point at which the second and third fingers come into contact, or in fact, by controlling the shape the locked up fingers make rather than trying to control individual strings independently.

Try another shape. Put your l.h. second finger on c at fret 5 on the third string, and your l.h. third finger on e at fret 5 on the second string. First try to bend them both up one whole tone by pushing them towards the bass side of the fingerboard. When I look at what is happening with my fingers, I see that the second finger naturally sits back behind fret 5 closer to the nut, and the third finger sits behind fret 5 also, but is closer to the bridge than the second finger. This allows the third finger to push the second string a little further over to the bass side of the fingerboard than the second finger will push the third string [you do have to read this bit slowly :-) ] which is exactly what it needs. [It is to do with the physical nature of the second and third strings and their relative tensions that the second string has to be bent further than the third to achieve the same degree of pitch change.] Now fret the same two notes in the same position, only this time, position your second and third fingers both at the same distance from the bridge, sothat they sit exactly side by side, and push. You'll get a much bigger pitch change on the third string than on the second; most likely a slightly wild whole tone on the third, and something less than a semi-tone on the second, as the third finger tucks in behind the second finger under string tension and is restricted in the amount it can bend the second string by the second finger [....read it slowly :-) ]. Now, with this double bend applied, move your second finger back towards the nut, and your third finger forward towards the bridge. Pluck the string as you do this, and you'll hear the relative pitch change - most likely the note on the third string will drop in pitch as the second finger loses the support it previously had from the third finger, and the second string will raise its relative pitch as the third finger moves around the obstacle previously presented by the second finger.

So, controlling the relative pitch of that bend is a matter of controlling the relative positions of the second and third finger along the length of the string. Once you have that down, double bends can be dealt with as single whole things, and learning to pitch them is a matter of learning how they feel at different points on the fingerboard. As with single bends, the point to get to is where you can put any one of them on silently and have it be in tune, without wavering, immediately you pluck the string. I think that once you've learned this kind of block system, you can THEN progress to separating the bends so that you can move them more independently, and at that point, you have to consider the kind of long-term damage you might do to unsupported finger joints. You'll take that point more seriously if you're over thirty with something like cyclists' knee or woodwind thumb than if you're twenty and still bounce.......