Unison and Octave Bends Part 1

Danny Grady: In a lot of classic rock, especially in some new modern rock you will hear a device called the unison bend and sounds like this. It's a great device because you have the essential component of tension and release in there where you are taking a note. You're playing, say we are playing this B here on 1st string, 7th fret and then we are going to come here to this A on the 2nd string of the 10th fret and we are going to bend that A so it sounds like a B, at the same time that we are playing the B beneath it.

At first you have an interval of a whole step which sounds kind of tense but as we bend this A to sound like B, you will notice that the tension goes away and you can do that all the way up the fret board.

So let's try that. Take your first finger and you are going to put it here on the 7th fret of the 1st string. Now take your third and your second finger -- your third and your second finger are actually going to be doing the bend and you put it on the 10th fret of the second string.

Now hook your thumb around the top of the fret board and that's where you are going to get your leverage from. Then you are going to pick the 1st and the 2nd string together but only bend the 2nd string after you do it. Keep your first finger exactly where it's at. And you will notice, I am using my thumb for leverage and I am just kind of pivoting from where my first finger is at. Really using my first finger is kind of a swing point or pivot point and when you use it that it makes it easier to keep your first finger where it's at.

Scotty Moore: Hi! I am Scotty Moore. She came back and handed me a sheet of paper and I looked at it and I said Elvis Presley, what kind of damn name is that?

Steve Rieck: And the idea is to play a D sharp major chord here. I am barring the 6th fret, strings one through five and I have got third finger across the 8th fret of strings two, three and four.


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