The whole-step bend
A full-tone bend on the B string with hard vibrato at the top — the rock exclamation point.
- Style
- rock
- Written in
- A
- Feel
- straight
- Tempo
- ♩=108
- Length
- 1 bar
Numbers are the order you play them, so notes sharing a number sound together. Drop the tempo until it is clean, then bring it back up.
Written in A, and the writing below describes it there. Move it to another key and the shape does not change, only where its root sits — which is the difference between knowing a lick and knowing a fret number.
- 1A · string 1, fret 5
- 2G · string 2, fret 8
- 3D · string 3, fret 7bend to fret 9
- 4A · string 1, fret 5vibrato
A whole step is the rock default, and gain will expose it the moment you land under the pitch. This is a whole step: the D at the 7th fret of the G string pushed up to E, checked against the E you can fret at the 9th.
Three fingers behind the bend, driven from the wrist. Apply the vibrato at the top of the bend, not on the way up, and make it wide — a narrow shake vanishes the moment the amp starts compressing.
Where this fits
This comes out of week 2 of the rock path — bends and vibrato, in tune. The week is where you learn the device; this page is where you come back to it once the week has rolled over.