One of the quickest ways to make your solos more expressive is string bending, and the one tone bend is where you want to start. The idea is simple: you’re pushing a string up until it reaches the pitch of another note in your scale. One whole step up. When you get it right, it sounds vocal — almost like the guitar is singing.
We’re going to focus on the three high strings today. There’s plenty more to cover with bending, but this is where it makes the biggest difference in your playing.
Relate Your Bends to a Scale
The key thing with bending is that you’re bending to a specific note — not just shoving the string up and hoping for the best. You need to know where you’re going. That means working within a scale.
We’ll use the A pentatonic minor scale for this, right in the first position around the 5th fret. If you know that scale already, you’re set. If not, learn it first — it’ll make everything here click.
Third String Bend
Start on the 7th fret, 3rd string. You’re going to bend that note up a whole step so it matches the pitch of the 5th fret on the 2nd string. Think of it like tuning your guitar — when the wobble disappears between the two notes, you’re on pitch.
This is the most common one tone bend you’ll use. It sounds especially good with some distortion on, but it works clean too. Chuck Berry used to work bends like this into his rhythm playing, almost as a riff rather than a solo technique. You can get creative with it.
Second String Bend
Next, move to the 2nd string. You’re bending the 8th fret up a whole tone to match the 1st string, 5th fret — that’s an E in the A minor scale.
I use my pinky for this, and I know some of you will want to use your third finger instead. There’s a reason I stick with the pinky, though: if you’re playing one finger per fret, your pinky belongs on the 8th fret, and keeping it there leaves your other fingers free for whatever comes next in the phrase. If the pinky feels weak, get your other fingers underneath it to help push the string up. That extra support makes a big difference.
A nice trick here is to add a right-hand mute between the pick strokes. Pick down, mute with your palm, pick up. It gives the bend a punchy, percussive feel.
First String Bend
The first string bend is a bit different because you don’t have another string right next to it for a reference pitch. But the principle is the same: you’re bending from the 8th fret (C) up a whole step to D. If you need to check your target pitch, you can find that D at the 10th fret on the same string.
Same pinky technique applies here. Same approach — get the other fingers helping out until the pinky builds up the strength to handle it on its own.
Putting It Together
Once you’ve got all three bends under your fingers, try stringing them together inside the A pentatonic scale. Move through the scale and throw in bends wherever they fall naturally. You’ll start hearing how they connect the notes in a way that just playing the frets straight doesn’t — there’s a smoothness to it, a vocal quality that makes your solos come alive.
Inside the Riff Ninja Guitar School, you’ll find a whole series on essential soloing techniques, each one building on ideas like this. If you want to go deeper, check out the 3-day free trial.
