A bend is when you change the pitch of a note by moving the string up and down. The bass strings are normally bent towards the ground and the treble strings away from the ground to stop the strings moving off the neck.

A bend can raise the pitch of a note and return it to the original pitch or just bend it up without releasing it. Bending a note before you play it creates a note which can be bent down to a lower pitch. Bends are often used together with a pivot note to create contrast. A unison bend is when the B string is bent to the same pitch as another note on the E string to thicken up the sound.

The B and G strings have different tensions so when you bend them together the B string is raised a semi-tone and the G string is raised by a whole tone. Chords can also be bent by moving each string involved in the chord.