Question about bending notes on a guitar?

Question

when you are bending a string TOWARD yourself, for example, bending a note on the high E or B string up toward the other strings, do you let your fingernail go under or over the other strings? mine tend to go under the strings and it kind of crowds them all together, so I am wondering what is the "official" way to do it?

Answer 1

Interesting.. "Official" way to hold your finger?

There's no official way, but depending on whether or not the other strings are also making a sound, you may want to avoid touching them. Instead of pushing, you might experiment with pulling the string toward you to see if you get the sound you want and that way avoid the thing with your finger?

When I push the string I tend to let my finger go over the next string. The nails on my left hand are pretty short and don't cause a problem.

Answer 2

Usually I keep my nails shortened on my left hand, but I do use them to purposely snag a string twice in its plucking.

Practice at bending the strings toward you except for the sixth (E) string. If your nail slides under another string during the process determine if that action hinders or helps your playing.

As the first poster said, there isn't any official method to bending the strings except to keep them on the fretboard.

Answer 3

Professionals keep their finger nails clipped short enough that this isn't an issue! And one benefit to it is that it lets the fleshy pad of the finger "damp" the adjacent string to keep it from buzzing!

Answer 4

i agree with everyone on this one