Andrew Marlin does some string bending to pretty cool effect in my opinion...
Andrew Marlin does some string bending to pretty cool effect in my opinion...
2003 John Sullivan F5 "Roy"
2015 Heiden F Artist
2019 Ruhland F5 #35
I have use string bending quite a lot in the past. It is an effect, not to change a note 1/2 step up. It took me a while to bend both strings the same, you need to press firmly on the fretboard against the strings and don't try to go too far. It has a nice effect if done correctly.
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I like it when Rich Del Grosso does it.
But my advice is: If you dont like it, don't do it.
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A few things just sound better when you choke a note. Choking is a slight bend, and easily accomplished on the mandolin with a little practice. I do choke notes, for instance, when playing CCR's Green River I'll choke the D note on A string to mimic what Fogarty did there.
I haven't tried to bend 1/2 step much less a whole step, generally find another way to play blues stuff that would cry out for that on guitar. But choking notes is a great tool to have in your arsenal for the mandolin IMHO
When I was very new at mandolin, I produced a tutorial to show how I was at that time working out how I might play Green River on mandolin. Like most of my amateur mandolin tutorials, it is not polished at all, but it does show how I choke that D note and where it fits. The tutorial is here, and the choking of the D note is discussed at around the 1:23 mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWMmAJ0cevo
BTW, when searching the google machine for the meaning of "choked note" you'll find a different usage of that term. For me, choking means to make a slight bend of approximately 1/4 step. I picked up that terminology from the Tabledit program, which has a button in the toolbar for rendering a choked note while transcribing. Prior to that, I didn't know what it was called other than a "slight bend".
Last edited by Mark Gunter; Dec-11-2022 at 12:11pm.
WWW.THEAMATEURMANDOLINIST.COM
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"Life is short. Play hard." - AlanN
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BTW I always bend my strings at the post hole before winding to pitch. Any little thing to help prevent slippage.
WWW.THEAMATEURMANDOLINIST.COM
----------------------------------
"Life is short. Play hard." - AlanN
----------------------------------
HEY! The Cafe has Social Groups, check 'em out. I'm in these groups:
Newbies Social Group | The Song-A-Week Social
The Woodshed Study Group | Blues Mando
- Advice For Mandolin Beginners
- YouTube Stuff
I don't care for string bending on mandolin, myself. But I surprise myself in how much I avoid innovation.
I especially don't care for it on electric mandolin. I think one of the few areas electric mandolin is distinguished from electric guitar is in the use of string bending. Ahh, maybe Niles is right. Maybe the distinction between the two electric instruments is gone already.
The electric instrument of course is different in that it acts as a prompter for sundry electronic processing of the signal. There's an attainable effect for every sound imaginable - you can sound like a sitar, chorus of angels, Roland saw, noise, whatever you want, on any electric device you want. The primary variables are electronic (pickup, amp, processing treatment), and aspects such as scale length, string gauge, bridge, box construction, etc - all very significant in effecting acoustic sound - are comparably minimal factors in sound production. Of course, there are structural/ergonomic differences (between elec mndln and elec gtr) that produce sound differences: lesser pitch range per string bend on mndln, for example, vibrato, etc..
My thinking is that string bending on the mandolin may be great as an artistic choice. The little I have heard and tried did not excite me.
String bending on the mandolin because it's what one does on guitar, I dunno. But again, I get no awards for innovation.
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