We've been discussing string bending techniques and the many different melodies, sounds and emotive qualities available to guitarists via different ways to bend and shake the strings. Our previous examples have been in the key of C# minor, and this month’s musical example will be played over a 24-bar minor blues form in that key. Andy Timmons' goal here is to present some beautiful and musical lines that are performed with a variety of bending techniques, which he hopes will ultimately inspire you to do the same in your own improvisations.
00:00Hey everybody, Andy Timmons, welcome back to Melodic Muse for Guitar World and we're continuing
00:22talking about building and today we're going to put some of these pieces together and play over
00:26a C sharp minor blues so I'm going to be trying to do the best I can to play some really beautiful
00:31melodies with bending and I hope it inspires you so let's get into it.
01:13So here's the chord progression.
01:43So here's the chord.
02:13As I start the solo, you know, I've always kind of have some kind of potential direction in mind.
02:33I want to start simply, and as the lines build, you'll see that I'm kind of ascending up the neck.
02:39Even though it's just one time through a blues form, and I might continue playing as the band vamps up,
02:46but even just this one time through the form, it's got a certain direction.
02:51It's starting kind of low and building up and building excitement and kind of climaxing in a certain way before the band comes in fully.
02:57So when I start off on that C sharp minor, I might not be remembering verbatim what I played,
03:05but some of the basic things that I was doing, and it's all really revolving around bending melodies through the chord tones, right?
03:12So I'm going to be very aware that if I'm on C sharp minor 7, I know where the root is, where that 3rd is, particularly the 5th is, and where the flat 7 is, and where the root is, right?
03:25So I played something to the, right?
03:30So I'm making a melody, bending up to the 9th.
03:38Another common thing I do quite a bit is even though I'm bending up to a scale tone, I might bend again to the next scale tone, and that's what I'm doing.
03:46I'm bending up to the 9th from the C sharp, and then adding another half step to that by achieving the 3rd, because again, I know that's kind of, that's what's outlining that harmony.
03:59That's what's giving you the tone of the chord, but I'm really featuring more of the 9th, because it's more of a, it's more of a kind of a tension note.
04:10Then I resolve it in a way, so I'm coming back down to the root, and eventually back down to the 5th.
04:26You know, in the next phrase I get into, I'm bending further up through.
04:31There I get up, I'm getting up into this position here in the 9th fret, where I'm bending from the 5th to the flat 7th.
04:40Now that's a, that's a minor 3rd bend.
04:44So this time I'm not going up to the next scalar pitch, I'm actually skipping a tone, going to the next pitch.
04:50So that's, but I start by bending to the, that 7th.
04:56And that's a nice tension tone, because we're still, we're on a static C sharp minor.
05:00So that note, that's the 6th scale degree.
05:04And so it's a kind of a cool, it's like the, it's like that, the 9th, where it wants to, it wants to resolve.
05:13So, but I'm bending up.
05:17Do that kind of thing all the time.
05:18As I'm wanting to gather even more energy and kind of a climax to the solo on that, when it gets to the 5th chord, I utilize this bend.
05:36And that's a very bluesy way of approaching the 5th chord, in that I'm starting on the, on the root, bending from the flat 3rd to the 4th.
05:50And instead of releasing the flat 3rd, it's flat, flat 3rd plus.
05:55It's not quite the major 3rd, not the minor 3rd.
05:58It's alright.
06:05And I slide all the way up here, to where I'm fretting the, the F sharp, I mean, yeah, the, the, the F sharp bending up to the G sharp.
06:14Here's the first time we get into a chromatic bend.
06:16So, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm achieving the root.
06:23Letting it descend to the natural 7th into the flat 7th.
06:34And I'm all the way up to that high C sharp bending from B to C sharp.
06:38Actually, I think I included the flat 9, didn't I?
06:49So, there's a chromatic.
06:51All the way up to the flat 9 from the flat 7th.
