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Andy Timmons On Approaches To Expressive String Bending Techniques
Guitar World
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2 days ago
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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Music
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00:00
Hey everybody, Andy Timmons here. Welcome back to Melodic Muse for Guitar World and we're going
00:22
to continue talking about subject near and dear unto my heart and that is string bending and maybe
00:27
talk about a couple of my influences first before getting into some playing and I recently got to
00:31
go hang out with a dear friend of mine who also happens to be a hero and that's Mr. Steve Lukather
00:35
and he came through town with Toto and Journey. They were playing a double bill, sold out at the
00:42
arena here in Dallas which is great having a sold out arena show with Greg Guitar Rock. It was very
00:47
heartening but had a wonderful hang with Luke that day. Went to see him that night and again he's
00:53
literally you know you know I've got more from him than almost any other player. Such a huge influence
00:58
and but I hadn't seen him live like in an arena you know ever and so I'd seen him in some other
01:04
places along the way but you know tremendous player but I was really blown away and I was moved so much
01:09
every time he bent a note it really just went straight inside me and it was it was a recognition
01:15
that a you know I heard myself in his playing because it's such a big part of how I approach
01:22
the bends and how I how I find pitch and he was so in the middle of that pitch that we talked about
01:27
in the last lesson finding the center of the pitch and he's textbook for that and I know that Larry
01:32
Carlton was an influence on him and he's another guy that I learned immense amounts from that first
01:36
Larry Carlton solo record with Room 335 and and some of some of his great early tunes that whole record
01:43
is everything you need to know about bending 101 and beyond honestly. So these two guys big influences
01:50
on me great great to see Steve recently and just be so blown away it brought me to tears it really
01:55
truly did and as I've talked about Jeff Beck before seeing him and what he does with string bending it's
02:00
just just mind-blowing so let's continue the path here let's talk about some more techniques and
02:05
hopefully he can improve all of our bending. Okay so now we're going to dig into bending through
02:11
a scale we're going to we're going to start with C-sharp Dorian as it applies to the C-sharp minor blues we're
02:16
going to get into here in a little bit so let's hear the sound of that C-sharp Dorian all on the G
02:20
string because that's where we're going to be bending so I'm going to start on the B
02:24
C-sharp D-sharp E F-sharp G-sharp what do you want to call that A-sharp I suppose B
02:33
C-sharp so we want to get that sound in our head
02:37
you know that's another practice I love anyway is practicing scales horizontally
02:44
okay now we're going to do a series of bends that are going to go from one note and bend up to the
02:54
next scale note okay so if we're going to start on that same same B on the fourth fret I'm going to
02:59
bend from that B to the C-sharp again trying to find just the center of that pitch
03:06
no vibrato
03:09
a lot of strength coming from the two fingers behind
03:14
thumb behind the neck
03:16
now to the note that I just achieved with the bend I'm going to fret that note
03:22
and then bend up to the next scale note
03:24
okay so we have
03:27
you could either re-articulate or just slide it
03:31
do that a lot where I'll start the sequence and not pick another note I'll just do it all by slides
03:39
now we've got
03:43
this next bend is a half step because the next scale note is E from the D-sharp
03:49
so we have
03:50
so that's kind of new what we're talking about that's just a half step bend from D-sharp to E
03:58
one of my favorite bends is that where you can find a good half step
04:03
and this is usually where it is it's in that when you got a minor minor chord
04:08
the third if you bend from the nine
04:10
now from that E the next scale tone is a whole step
04:21
bending from E to F-sharp
04:24
next one is F-sharp to G-sharp
04:27
G-sharp to we're going to call it A-sharp
04:31
always feels weird saying A-sharp because it's in harmonic with B-flat but in this key it is A-sharp
04:36
then A-sharp to B if we want to complete the octave B to C-sharp
04:43
so as an exercise well the way I would combine this why I connected this
04:49
that's a nice way to do a release
04:53
again an overbado at the end
05:09
or maybe a little reward at the end
05:12
all right so what goes up can come down
05:20
so let's let's do the whole thing in reverse
05:22
let's start at the uh at the octave
05:26
where we start here on the G-string
05:27
and we're going to go up to that uh math is good
05:30
16th fret on the B
05:40
so pay attention as you're going through this
05:42
the strength that it takes and and the articulation that you're getting not only
05:45
from the bend and it's the release
05:50
and then sliding into that next note setting yourself up to where the next bend occurs
05:56
I'm getting as much volume out of
06:03
then I'll re-articulate
06:05
I'm getting as much volume out of
06:11
then I'll re-articulate
06:15
as who's out of
06:17
then I'll re-articulate
06:18
huh
06:22
yeah
06:24
okay
06:26
yeah
06:27
man
06:28
logical
06:30
smack
06:31
yeah
06:33
yeah
06:33
okay
06:33
yeah
06:34
yeah
06:34
yeah
06:34
yeah
06:35
yeah
06:36
yeah
06:36
yeah
06:36
yeah
06:38
yeah
06:39
yeah
06:40
yeah
06:42
yeah
06:43
yeah
06:45
yeah
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