The quarter note bend, also known as the “blues bend”, is a very common technique you’ve definitely heard before, especially if you’re into blues or blues rock. Let’s dive in!
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Franco Lacan
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Working with quarter bends can be challenging, as we’re dealing with an intangible target note. When we bend up a semi-tone or a whole tone, we can easily hear the target note by simply fretting one or two frets higher than our starting note. But not here!
Starting from the right note
As this technique can be challenging at first, we’re going to start on a very specific note, the flat third of our minor pentatonic scale! First of all, that’s where you’ll hear this bend being played a lot, but also, limiting ourselves to one note out of five will help you know where you can throw this awesome quarter note bend into your next epic blues rock solo.
To find your flat third, all you need is to locate the minor root note of your pentatonic scale and target the next note up your scale. That’s where we’ll play our mighty quarter tone bend!
Of course, even if that note is the perfect one to get started with quarter bends, feel free to experiment with other notes!
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Once your quarter tone bends are solid, feel free to experiment with them anywhere!
Franco Lacan
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Here are a some examples of where to get started on shape 1 of B minor pentatonic.
Getting up to the target note
The most important thing when playing this bend is your timing. We don’t want to reach the target note too quickly, the key is controlling the speed at which we bend the string. Reaching the target note too quickly might sound out of tune, fair enough! Remember that this “target pitch” isn’t technically part of the scale!
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To compensate for the very strong colour we’re playing with, we have to be confident with our timing, and reach the right pitch at the very end of our bend.
Franco Lacan
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Hold the note for quite some time, and only as you’re about to finish the bend, quickly push up to the target pitch. It’s like asking a question, the pitch goes up at the very end!
As you reach your destination, stop it completely dead. Doing this, even if you were to land slightly too high or too low, you’d still get the right feel. It will then sound like you’re in control of it, even if that bend is not resolved, and that’s the whole point!
Resolution
The quarter note bend has a very strong colour, and ending a solo or a phrase on it can sometimes be a bit too “spicy”. If we think of this bend as a question being asked, we then need to answer it! That’s what we call the resolution.
To resolve a lick, a very good option is of course to land on the root.
You should practice playing a quarter tone bend and then resolving it on the root note of your scale in different positions. Really take your time with this, and remember to focus on the timing of your quarter tone bend.
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Remember the different steps; hold, go for it, and resolve on the root note!
Franco Lacan
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As you get more confident with it, you won't always have to land on the root note, and you’ll gain more control over the tension you create with this awesome bend.
It does take tuning in the ear to know what pitch to target, and some practice to get used to the timing we need on this bend, but remember to keep in mind the graph we’ve looked at above!
Want to learn even more about blues and quarter bends?
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