Andy Timmons On Approaches To Expressive String Bending Techniques
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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00:00Everybody, Andy Timmons here.
00:19Welcome back to Melodic Muse for Guitar World.
00:22And we're going to continue talking about a subject near and dear to my heart,
00:25and that is string bending.
00:26And maybe talk about a couple of my influences
00:29first before getting into some playing.
00:30And I recently got to go hang out with a dear friend of mine
00:33who also happens to be a hero, and that's Mr. Steve Lukather.
00:36And he came through town with Toto and Journey.
00:40They were playing at Double Bill, sold out at the arena
00:43here in Dallas, which is great.
00:45Having a sold out arena show with Greg Guitar Rock, it was very heartening.
00:48But had a wonderful hang with Luke that day.
00:50Went to see him that night.
00:52And again, he's literally, you know, I've
00:55got more from him than almost any other player, such a huge influence.
00:59But I hadn't seen him live, like, in an arena, you know, ever.
01:02So I'd seen him in some other places along the way.
01:05But, you know, tremendous player.
01:06But I was really blown away.
01:08I was moved so much.
01:09Every time he bent a note, it really just went straight inside me.
01:14And it was a recognition that, A, you know,
01:18I heard myself in his playing, because it's
01:20such a big part of how I approach the bends and how I find pitch.
01:25And he was so in the middle of that pitch
01:27that we talked about in the last lesson, finding the center of the pitch.
01:30And he's textbook for that.
01:31And I know that Larry Carlton was an influence on him.
01:33And he's another guy that I learned immense amounts from.
01:36That first Larry Carlton solo record with Room 335
01:39and some of his great early tunes.
01:42That whole record is everything you need to know about bending 101
01:47and beyond, honestly.
01:49So these two guys, big influences on me.
01:51Great to see Steve recently and just be so blown away.
01:54Brought me to tears.
01:55It really, truly did.
01:57And as I've talked about Jeff Beck before,
01:58seeing him and what he does with string bending, it's just mind-blowing.
02:01So let's continue the path here.
02:03Let's talk about some more techniques.
02:05And hopefully, we can improve all of our bending.
02:08OK, so now we're going to dig into bending through a scale.
02:12And we're going to start with C-sharp Dorian
02:14as it applies to the C-sharp minor blues we're
02:16going to get into here in a little bit.
02:17So let's hear the sound of that C-sharp Dorian all on the G string,
02:21because that's where we're going to be bending.
02:23So I'm going to start on the B. C-sharp, D-sharp, E, F-sharp, G-sharp.
02:31What do you want to call that?
02:32A-sharp, I suppose.
02:33B. C-sharp.
02:35So we want to get that sound in our head.
02:40Now, that's another practice I love anyway, is practicing scales horizontally.
02:48OK, now we're going to do a series of bends
02:51that are going to go from one note and bend up to the next scale note, OK?
02:56So 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.
03:04Again, trying to find just the center of that pitch.
03:08No vibrato.
03:12A 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,
03:20I'm going to fret that note and then bend up to the next scale note.
03:26OK, so we have, you could either re-articulate or just slide it.
03:34I do that a lot where I'll start the sequence and not pick another note.
03:37I'll just do it all by slides.
03:42Now, we've got this next bend is a half step because the next scale note
03:48is E from the D-sharp.
03:49So we have...
03:54So that's kind of new, what we're talking about.
03:55That's just a half step bend from D-sharp to E.
04:00One of my favorite bends is that where you can find a good half step.
04:04And this is usually where it is.
04:06It's in that when you've got a minor chord.
04:09The third, if you bend from the nine.
04:10Now, from that E, the next scale tone is a whole step.
04:23Bending from E to F-sharp.
04:26Next one is F-sharp to G-sharp.
04:29G-sharp, we're going to call it A-sharp.
04:32Always feels weird saying A-sharp because it's inharmonic with B-flat,
04:35but in this key, it is A-sharp.
04:37And A-sharp to B.
04:41If we want to complete the octave, B to C-sharp.
04:45So as an exercise, well, the way I would combine this, why I connected this.
04:52That's a nice way to do a release.
05:07Again, no vibrato at the end.
05:11Or maybe a little reward at the end.
05:18All right, so what goes up can come down.
05:20So let's do the whole thing in reverse.
05:23Let's start at the octave, where we start here on the G string.
05:27And we're going to go up to that, math is good, 16th fret on the B.
05:37So pay attention as you're going through this.
05:42The strength that it takes and the articulation that you're getting,
05:45not only from the bend, and it's the release.
05:50And then sliding into that next note, setting yourself up to where the next bend occurs.
05:58I'm getting as much volume out of...
06:03Then I'll re-articulate.