Andy Timmons explores a topic that’s near and dear to his heart — using string-bending techniques and related phrasing approaches to craft emotionally expressive melodic lines.
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00:00Hey everybody, Andy Timmons here. Welcome back to Melodic Muse for Guitar World. And we're
00:22going to continue talking about a subject near and dear unto my heart, and that is string bending.
00:26And maybe talk about a couple of my influences first before getting into some playing.
00:30And I recently got to go hang out with a dear friend of mine who also happens to be a hero,
00:34and that's Mr. Steve Lukather. And he came through town with Toto and Journey. They were playing a
00:41double bill, sold out at the arena here in Dallas, which is great. Having a sold out arena show with
00:46great guitar rock, it was very heartening. But had a wonderful hang with Luke that day, went to see
00:51him that night. And again, he's literally, you know, I've got more from him than almost any other
00:56player. Such a huge influence. But I hadn't seen him live like in an arena, you know, ever. So I'd
01:03seen him in some other places along the way. But, you know, tremendous player. But I was really blown
01:08away. I was moved so much. Every time he bent a note, it really just went straight inside me. And
01:14it was a recognition that, A, you know, I heard myself in his playing because it's such a big part
01:21of how I approach the bends and how I find pitch. And he was so in the middle of that pitch that we
01:27talked about in the last lesson, finding the center of the pitch. And he's textbook for that. And I know
01:31that Larry Carlton was an influence on him. And he's another guy that I learned immense amounts from.
01:36That first Larry Carlton solo record with Room 335 and some of his great early tunes. That whole record
01:43is everything you need to know about bending 101 and beyond, honestly. So these two guys,
01:50big influences on me. Great to see Steve recently and just be so blown away. It brought me to tears.
01:55It really, truly did. And as I've talked about Jeff Beck before, seeing him and what he does with
02:00string bending. It's just mind-blowing. So let's continue the path here. Let's talk about some more
02:04techniques and hopefully we can improve all of our bending. Okay, so now we're going to dig into
02:10bending through a scale. We're going to start with C-sharp Dorian as it applies to the C-sharp minor
02:15blues we're going to get into here in a little bit. So let's hear the sound of that C-sharp Dorian
02:20all on the G string, because that's where we're going to be bending. So I'm going to start on the B.
02:25C-sharp, D-sharp, E, F-sharp, G-sharp. What do you want to call that? A-sharp, I suppose? B,
02:33C-sharp. So we want to get that sound in our head.
02:40You know, that's another practice I love anyway, is practicing scales horizontally.
02:48Okay, now we're going to do a series of bends that are going to go from one note and bend up
02:54to the next scale note. Okay, so if we're going to start on that same B on the fourth fret,
02:59I'm going to bend from that B to the C-sharp. Again, trying to find just the center of that
03:05pitch. No vibrato. A lot of strength coming from the two fingers behind, thumb behind the neck.
03:18Now, to the note that I just achieved with the bend, I'm going to fret that note and then bend
03:23up to the next scale note. Okay, so we have, you could either re-articulate or just slide it.
03:34You do that a lot where I'll start the sequence and not pick another note. I'll just do it all by
03:38slides. Now, we've got, this next bend is a half step because the next scale note is E from the D-sharp.
03:49So we have, so that's kind of new what we're talking about. That's just a half-step bend from
03:56D-sharp to E. One of my favorite bends is that where you can find a good half-step.
04:04And this is usually where it is. It's in that when you've got a minor chord. The third,
04:09if you bend from the nine. Now, from that E, the next scale tone is a whole step.
04:23We're bending from E to F-sharp. Next one is F-sharp to G-sharp.
04:29G-sharp to, we're going to call it A-sharp. Always feels weird saying A-sharp because it's
04:34inharmonic with B-flat, but it's in this key. It is A-sharp. Then A-sharp to B. If we want to
04:41complete the octave, B to C-sharp. So as an exercise, well, the way I would combine this,
04:48why I connected this. That's a nice way to do it. Do a release.
04:53Again, an overbado at the end. Or maybe a little reward at the end.
05:17All right. So what goes up can come down. So let's do the whole thing in reverse.
05:22Let's start at the, uh, at the octave where we start here on the G string. And we're going to go
05:28up to that, uh, math is good. 16th fret on the B. So pay attention as you're going through this,
05:42the strength that it takes and the articulation that you're getting, not only from the bend
05:46and it's the release. And then sliding into that next note, setting yourself up to where the next
05:53bend occurs. I'm getting as much volume out of, then I'll re-articulate.
06:04Let's do it.
06:11Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.