In The Woodshed
Today we get physical with the lowest strings to bend it like Tony Iommi, Steve Vai and Dimebag. Charlie Griffiths flexes his finger muscles.
Bending on the low strings is a great way to add a different texture and nuance to riffs. In this trip to the woodshed we will look at five rock and metal riffs taking inspiration from players like Tony Iommi, Steve Vai and Dimebag Darrell.
While we are used to string bending the treble in the context of bluesy lead licks, the lower strings have a different feel and tension. Get used to the string tension by practising bending the strings in semitone, tone and minor 3rd increments. With enough practice, you will learn how far you need to move the string to achieve the desired pitch bend.
Good string bending technique means avoiding putting strain on your hands and fingers, so don’t overdo it. The first example is designed to help you build bending strength with each finger in turn. Bending the lowest three strings is best achieved using a downward ‘pulling’ motion. Bending your fingers to pull the string puts unnecessary strain on your tendons and repeating this can lead to arm pain. Instead, avoid moving your fingers and keep them locked in position while turning your wrist and forearm to lever the string down toward the floor. Keep your first finger knuckle in contact with the underside of the neck and use this as a pivot for your hand. Start with just your first finger and try bending the sixth string up and down a semitone, then add your second, third and fourth fingers; the more fingers you have on the string, the easier the bend will feel.
In the second example we move on to bending both a tone and a semitone. Part of the skill here is ear training; you need to be able to recognise a semitone and a tone by ear before you can aim for it. You can do this a couple of ways: first try playing the target fret and holding the pitch in your head before you try bending to it. With enough practice, you will learn the sound of these intervals. Another approach involves referencing famous tunes to recognise intervals. Common examples are the Jaws theme for a semitone, Happy Birthday for a tone, and the Smoke On b 3rd. The Water riff’s opening notes for a
Our third example focuses on the importance of remaining diatonic to the scale. In this case all the notes are from E Minor Pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D). It sounds better to bend up to the next available note in the scale. Using a semitone bend from G will sound out of tune, because the next highest scale note ‘A’ is a tone higher.
Example 4 is inspired by Tony Iommi and focuses on pre bends, which are a fantastic way to test your bending accuracy. Finally we have a Dimebag style riff in drop D tuning and featuring minor 3rd bends up and down the sixth string. Play through each example slowly and ensure that all the bends are in tune before playing up to speed with the backing tracks provided.
NEXT MONTH Charlie demonstrates how to home in on creating larger string skips