Finding the melody via alternative string-bending techniques
by Andy Timmons
MELODIC MUSE
WE’VE BEEN DISCUSSING string bending techniques and the many different melodies, sounds and emotive qualities available to guitarists via different ways to bend and shake the strings. Our previous examples have been in the key of C# minor, and this month’s musical example will be played over a 24-bar minor blues form in that key. My goal here is to present some beautiful and musical lines that are performed with a variety of bending techniques, which I hope will ultimately inspire you to do the same in your own improvisations.
As I start any solo, I like to have some kind of direction in mind; I might start simply, and as the lines build I will often move up the fretboard. FIGURE 1 illustrates the 24-bar solo, which kicks off with eight bars on the tonic, C#m. Across these bars, I play lines based on the C# minor pentatonic scale (C#, E, F#, G#, B), with the inclusion of the 2nd, or 9th, D#. At the end of bar 1, I bend the C# root note up a whole step to the 2nd, D#, then release the bend and bend up one and a half steps to the minor, or “flatted,” 3rd, E. So, right away, I’m using bends to target specific pitches.
In a global sense, I’m aware of using bending techniques to touch on and maneuver around the notes of any given chord. For C#m, the triadic chord tones are C#, E and G#. For F#m, they’re F#, A and C#. For A7, the expanded dominant 7th chord tones are A, C#, E and G, and the G#7 chord tones are G#, B#, D# and F#.
One of my favorite things about string bending is that it offers me a wonderful and effective way to emulate the ability of the human voice to seamlessly glide from one pitch to the next. There are other techniques and articulations that guitarists often use to mimic the legato (smooth and connected) quality of
