Don't understand bending on tabs

I don't understand bending on tabs i.e. what they are saying to do exactly. [br][br]Here are some examples. Here are screen captures from a video on youtube. [br][br]The first capture the tab has G string with 7b9, his fingers don't touch fret 9, but instead are pushing up G string on fret 5,6,7....Why? [br][br]The second capture...the tab reads 5B 7G and 5B 9G. No string is pushed up on the 5th fret or the 9th fret, the strings are pushed up on frets 6 and 7. Why? [br][br]I don't understand this.

Originally Posted by: greengamer8990

I don't understand bending on tabs i.e. what they are saying to do exactly.

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The letter 'b' indicates to bend the string. The first number is the fret you hold. The second number is the target note that you bend up to. So, bend the 7th fret up until it sounds like the note fretted at the 9th fret.

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Originally Posted by: greengamer8990The first capture the tab has G string with 7b9, his fingers don't touch fret 9, but instead are pushing up G string on fret 5,6,7....Why?

[p]You are bending the 7th fret note up in pitch until it matches the sound of the 9th fret. He is using the 5th & 6th frets as leverage to help push the string up to bend it. They are not critical to the pitch, but usually it helps to have the other fingers on the string in order to have the strength to bend it & the stability to keep it bent up.

[quote=greengamer8990]The second capture...the tab reads 5B 7G and 5B 9G. No string is pushed up on the 5th fret or the 9th fret, the strings are pushed up on frets 6 and 7. Why?

Again a bend on the 7th fret with the sound of the 9th fret being the target pitch. There shouldn't be a 'b' on the B string because the player is only holding the 5th fret. This is called an oblique bend because one note is changing pitch (the note on the G string), while the other note (the note on the B string) is not changing.

Hope that helps!

@Chris but how do you Chord bends? [br][br]I found another tab and it shows multiple "chord" bends. Take the first one which is 13 B and 15G together with b 17G. I don't understand, it's pushing up strings 13B and strings 15G to sound like string 17G ? I'm going to say, though I'm probably wrong, that the 13B is not utilized it's just there to stabilize a finger, if this is the case, then why even have 13, 15, 10 in those top rows? [br]

[br]Also how would the following work? [br][br]Sorry if too many pics.

Originally Posted by: greengamer8990

@Chris but how do you Chord bends?

Guitarists also sometimes call this specific type a "unison bend" because you are bending the lower string until it matched the pitch of the higher unbent string.

Originally Posted by: greengamer8990

[br]Also how would the following work? [br]