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Beginner Guitar Lessons - String Bending

String Bending On Guitar

Bending strings causes the pitch of the note fretted to change to a higher pitch.
Most commonly strings are bent a whole step (to sound like the note 2 frets higher)

But sometimes they can be bent just ½ step (sounds like 1 fret higher) or even higher: 1 ½ steps (sounds 3 frets higher) and the finger-numbing 2 step bend (sounds like 4 frets higher.

How to bend a string: (I’m using the 12th fret region of the neck as an example here.)

1.    On the 15th fret, 2nd string use your ring finger to fret the note.
2.    Place your index and middle fingers on the string to add extra support to the note.
3.    Use all 3 fingers to push the string upwards along the fretboard.  Be sure to keep applying pressure to the fretted note as well.
4.    The note should be “bent” until it sounds like the note on the 17th fret.  Compare the two notes by playing the 17th fret with your 3rd finger and then bending the 15th fret note to the same pitch.  Don’t be afraid to put some muscle into it.  Don’t worry the string won’t break.  This is a full step bend.
5.    When the pitches match you’ve got the right idea!

Some examples of guitarists that use string bending in their songs and solos:
 
Eric Clapton,  Stevie ray Vaughan: Full step bends
Buck Dharma (Blue Oyster Cult): half step bends
Eddie Van Halen: 2 step bends, sometimes even more!
Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson:  All types of bends

Have fun and happy bending!

This article was written by Bob Prong. You can learn more about him at: http://prongamaniarunswild.tripod.com/

To find out more about playing the guitar and beginner guitar lessons, visit: beginnerguitarlessonsonline

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RGP player wins 2nd place in contest!

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted so I wanted to give an update on some really cool news.

Johnathan Dretto, a personal student of mine, recently won second place in a local guitar contest at The House Of Guitars.  The event was sponsored by Epiphone. As the runner up Johnathan won a really sweet Epiphone Acoustic!

Here’s a picture of Johnathan with Epiphone clinician Stacy Mitchhart and the local Gibson Guitar Rep.

Way To Go Johnathan!

I also had the pleasure of performing with Johnathan at a local guitar recital.  Here’s a You Tube videos of us jamming out together:

Everything else at Rock Guitar Power has been going great! We are now fully digital and able to stream all of our content so you will now get instant access to our lessons once you purchase them!

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Using itunes as a source for backing tracks

One of the best things that you can do to further yourself as a guitar player is to play along with the recordings of the songs that you are working on as well as to use backing tracks to jam along to. Actual recordings are pretty self-explanatory, after you learn the song you just hit play on the cd player and play along to the tune. Backing tracks, also known as jam tracks, are a little different in that they will usually have one element of the song missing, usually the lead or rhythm guitar part. This makes it easier to hear yourself playing the part and gives you the feeling of playing in an actual band. In either case, it’s very important for you to start working with these methods of practice because it will greatly enhance your rhythm playing and your overall confidence as a guitar player.

Along with being a great way to practice and learn the exact parts of a song, backing tracks give you a great opportunity to practice your lead and improvising technique. If you have been playing guitar for any decent amount of time, you most likely have learned the minor pentatonic scale, the king of all guitar soloing scales. This is all you need to know to start having fun with improvising and coming up with your own melodies.

One of the best resources that I have found recently for free guitar backing tracks is the ITUNES radio channels. Although the music that you will find here is not made to be jam tracks, with certain parts left out, there is a huge variety of music that you can just let play while you jam to it and come up with solos and melodies. My favorite channel is Groove Salad under the Ambient category. It is non-stop, commercial free instrumental music that will give you an endless amount of fresh tracks to practice and jam to. Most of it is in minor key signatures so all you have to do is use the minor pentatonic scale to figure out the key and then jam away. This is also a great way to practice your full major and minor scales as well. Most of the chord progressions that make up these tunes use major and minor chords (instead of just power chords), which sound great against major and minor scales.

After you get the hang of it, you will find yourself jamming away for hours on end and coming up with some great ideas. Along with building your soloing and improvising skills, this is also a great way to improve the ability to use your ear to figure out music. As always, have fun, practice hard and keep those fingers moving!

This article was written by Mike Deiure. The creator of the Rock Guitar Power series of Instructional Videos.

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Teaching Someone Else How To Play Guitar Makes You A Better Player

One of the best ways that I have found to give thanks for something, especially a skill or talent, is to teach it to someone else. While there are many benefits in doing this, some very specific ones come to mind and they are: It makes you better at whatever your doing, It gives someone else the opportunity to learn what you know, and its a great way to show that you aren’t selfish and want to help others. So with this idea in mind, let me give you some in depth reasons why teaching other people guitar makes you better player.

When I first started teaching guitar I was still in college and my first student was a kid who needed to learn some basic classical music so that he could audition for the school of music at SUNY Fredonia. I was a little nervous about teaching him at first because I didn’t know if I would be good enough to teach him properly. After a few weeks of lessons, I quickly found that there were many aspects of his playing that I would be able to help him get better at. The most important thing that I found was that teaching someone else to play makes you dissect what your actually doing to a very detailed level. This in turn makes you understand so much more about your own playing and technique. When you need to describe a certain chord shape, scale, or technique, you will find yourself taking a whole new look at what your doing. This is necessary to do so that you can find a way to tell another person how to do it. After just a month or two of working with my first student, I found myself playing with more precision and more confidence because I truly understood more about my own playing. Now fast forward about seven years of teaching guitar as my main occupation and you can only imagine the confidence and insight that comes with that much focus on showing other people what you already know. …Read More

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The Importance Of Warming Up On Guitar

I chose to write about this topic this month because I am actually recovering from a pretty bad hand injury that I sustained over a month ago. The actual injury was a result of a combination of things but it has given me a very good reason to remember the importance of warming up before playing and practicing because, due to my injury, I have not been able to play my guitar for over a month! Not cool to say the least.

I’ll first give you a quick recap on what happened and then I talk about some exercises and warm up routines that you can do to prevent injury. I recently started working on writing a new song that was very technical and fast. Although I play a lot of this kind of music, I have not been keeping up on it lately because I have been busy working on other things. I also got into indoor rock climbing over the summer. On one particular day about a month ago, I was working on writing for about a four hour stretch, then I went in to teach for about another four hours. To top the day off, I then went climbing that evening for the third time in a one week span. I knew that I was pushing it but I wasn’t really feeling any serious pain so I moved through the day without much caution. The next couple days however I started feeling some serious sharp pain in my left hand and wrist. I knew that it was a combination of too much technical playing and rock climbing in a very short time span. Rock climbing, by the way, is extremely hard on your hands and fingers, not the best activity to be involved in if your a guitar player. The pain continued and only got worse when I taught and played guitar. After a couple weeks of this constant pain, I paid a visit to my doctor. He basically told me that there shouldn’t be any long term damage and that I probably just inflamed some tendons in my hand and wrist. He told me to ice it when it gets sore, to take Aleve to reduce the inflammation, and to stay off of it as much as possible. Fat chance of that happening! It’s been a little over a month now and it is feeling much better. I’m still not 100% but I can play and practice pretty regularly without much discomfort.

Now lets talk about Good Pain and Bad Pain …Read More

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