Bending...

I am an intermidiate guitarist, been playing around five years now, but I am still having a very small amount of trouble with my bends. EVERY time I bend up, I hit the next string, and when I let it go, the next string is heard. Not a Huge problem, but it's annoying, so does anyone have a suggestion about how to stop that from happening?

Try bending the string the opposite direction. Anytime I am doing very aggressive bends I bend down towards the floor, this way you can mute the lower string with the other fingers on your fretting hand. If that feels too strange for you then try muting the offending string with the ridge of the thumb of your picking hand as you neds towards your head (upwards).

i don't know if you're already trying this but , are you re-enforcing the strength of your bending finger w/ any fingers in back of it ???

for ex : S'POSE you wanna bend a note on the 3rd string , the G string... let's say you wanna bend up a whole step from the ninth fret E note to the 11th FRET TARGET PITCH WHICH IS F# (a whole step)... try placing your third finger on the ninth fret E note but back it up w/ your fist finger and second fingers as if your 3 fingers were lined up from the seventh to ninth frets all on the G string , dig ? ... This is a real guitar 101 tip but , I WOULD THINK THIS SHOULD ELIMINATE THE PROBLEM OF CATCHING THE OTHER STRING... when i first began playing i found bending to any target pitch alot easier w/ the use of back up fingers... eventually you'll develop a whole lotta strength in which one finger should be appropriate WHOLE STEP TARGETS OR HALF STEP TARGETS... BENDING DOWN IS ALWAYS A COOL WAY TO REACH A TARGET PITCH... THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT BENDING DOWN THAT IS EASIER... BUT BENDING UP IS A GOOD THING TO HAVE FOR UNISON BENDS IN WHICH YOU FRET THE PITCH YOU'RE BENDING TO ON THE FOLLOWING STRING... Micheal Schenker is one of my favorite rock guitar players and he does some amazing things bending downward and upward... I was raised on a steady diet of yngwie , schenker , van halen , hendrix and robin trower... all of whom bend brilliantly , even yngwie who tends to get a bad rap , but FK THAT CUZ he's soooo soulful behind the speed !!!

SHREEEDDDER Franky M.

I do reinforce my bends. What happens is the tops of my fingers touch the next string, and it pulls off, resonating the string. I am wondering how to get that string out of the way when I do upward bends on the lower strings.

I suppose that I need to practice it for a while. I am also trying to work on my sweep picking so it would be nice to find an easy way to do this.

I used to have the same problem. I eventually learned to mute the 2 adjacent strings to the one I'm bending with the edge of my thumb and birdy finger on my picking hand....I kind of grap the 2 adjacent strings....unless I'm bending one of the E strings, then I just mute the 1 string that is adjacent.

Hope this makes sense.....

my bad dude !!!

i thought you were doing something different... hmm ?
anyways it sounds like something that will come only through time and practice... also the muting thing is a wise route to take... someone here said that i think it might of been jfrick... but if that's the problem i'd have to agree w/ the muting theory... often times i'll bring my thumb on my fret hand way the heck around the neck and be able to mute that way , but that is when i'm resorting to wild frenzy of frantically wide bends , w/ butterfly vibrato..

good luck man...

as for the sweep arpeggios , i've posted some stuff on sweep picking on the sweeping thread superhuman had a list that i echoed and elaborated on a bit... if you're barring strings when sweeping you gotta roll yer finger , if your in an (ex:) E minor triad on the first three strings say
9th fret E third finger on the G string , 8th fret G 2nd finger on the B string , 7th fret B first finger on the high E string , followed by a trill w/ your pinky to the 12th fret trilling off the 7th fret... you've gotta time each finger in terms on when you lift yer third finger it should be muting the G string as you're fretting the B string and so on... start w/ "three string" sweeps , then try 4 or 5 strings then try 6 or 7 if you've got a seven string

Thanks guys. You've been a good help.

Try bending more below the string than on top of it if that makes any since. It will help you so that the string next to the one you're bending doesn't get caught under your bending finger.

Don't release your bend immediately. Lessen the tension on the bend by bringing it back down some if not all the way. If you release it while still pushing up, it will pop and with the string above.