Everyone has some really good suggestions on this. Another thing that you can practice doing, is a Joe Satriani and Steve Vai exercise. They suggest playing a scale up the string and each note you bend up to the next note of the scale, and then play the next note of the scale to see how close you got it. This helps you in multiple ways: scale memorization, playing bends in all positions, control, and bending in pitch. This can even be done with your pentatonics with some really big bends.


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Maybe you can practice standard bends but make sure you do it like vibrato. Play the note, bend it up (be it half steps or full steps - do both and do it on different places) and then bring it back down to the exact starting position. Do that against a metronome to get it evenly.

Also pick an easy lick and make the rue that you have to end it off by using a bend and maybe even a bent note vibrato. This way you will aply this bending skills you have immediately improving it further and making the process fun.

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Agreed.

One thing that many students also forget to do is apply it in a large context. If you only work something in isolation you are going to have a very difficult time ever using it in a musical situation.

Good luck and keep working hard!

www.jamesericksonmusic.com

A technique I've used is to find the fret from which I am bending. If I am performing a full bend I fret and play the note 2 frets above. I repeat this until the note sticks in my head. Then I go back down 2 frets, play the note and bend until it reaches the correct pitch.

If I am using a half bend, I go through the same steps but with the note 1 fret above.

It's funny. I've never thought about bending. Ok, I mean to say, as someone plays pretty bluesy; is that I don't often think about how the bend resolves.

I remember years ago, a friend of mine who was a pretty solid player always seemed to bend sharp. He was in a band with a guy who always bend pitch/note perfect. One was too much and the other was not enough.

In a way, Think think bending is the general understanding that the bend should land on pitch but, as EVH said: 'Gotta learn the rules before you break them'.

Bending is feel. Bending is often the element of a guitar that makes it the most voice-like.

Back to my start above; play and don't think so much. Antithetical to a teaching site? Perhaps. However, you have to feel the bend and not think it. I'm guessing our friends in Skynyrd weren't thinking about it so much.

This is very cool! Love it!

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True. If in doubt you can just bend a note and let your ear tell you if it works. Its important to build up strength in the fingers in order to bend really effectively.