Aldertguitarist wrote:
Also bend with more than one finger at once. It helps your finger that is on the note. So if you were, say using your ring finger to bend, put your middle and index fingers behind this finger (obviously won't change the pitch), to help your ring finger.
Another thing people neglect to look at when bending is which direction you are bending (down or up). On the three higher pitched strings (e, B, G), I would bend up, and lower pitched strings (D, A, E) I would bend down. This is just so you don't run out of fretboard when bending.
And lastly, like a big wide vibrato, there's alot of wrist movement involved.
++;
It also helps to dedicate some practice time to bending with all three "bending fingers" (fingers 1,2 and 3) individually. Bending with just finger 1 can be particularly tricky, but is a common technique when playing the blues. You can even bend with your pinky (I do sometimes), but fingers 1, 2 and 3 are the main ones. You need to build some individual strength, so like Aldertguitarist says, practice with your third finger first (reinforced with fingers 1 and 2).
Wrist movement is important, but a little hard to explain without a video. When bending, it's important to not try to have all the force come from your fingers, especially in big bends. Try keep your bending fingers almost "locked" in place on the string, and then
rotate your wrist (you will feel tension in your bicep) to get the fingers moving up (or down) on the fretboard. This will do a lot to help you avoid injuring the ligaments / tendons in your fingers. It can also help your vibrato technique.
To keep a bent note singing, it helps to apply a little vibrato to the bent note, but this is (for me) the single most difficult bending-associated technique (aside from crazy Donahue tricks) and is something you probably want to work on after the basics are firmly in place. There are some good YouTube videos on this.
Also: get your guitar set-up properly. There's nothing harder than trying to bend strings on an improperly set-up guitar (I know - I actually hurt myself quite badly trying to do this). Light guage strings to start.
Finally: try and steal some techniques from your fave guitarists. Santana is a good place to start: lots of his stuff involves repeated bends on the low frets near the nut, which is a lot tougher than bends higher up on the neck - your hand and wrist are in a more awkard position, and it's harder to bend the string closer to the extremities.
@Stratisfear
Your vibrato technique actually sounds a lot like mine, and a lot like Clapton's: he also takes his whole hand off the neck a lot. ?
