Hobbies And Interests
Building Calluses
Guitar playing requires strong calluses on your fingertips, which can be built through consistent practice. The calluses allow you to play for a long period without becoming sore. To get strength and speed in your bending without hurting your fingers, practice often for approximately 30 minutes per day, for five or six days a week. Gradually, you will notice that your fingertips are becoming increasingly strong and the bends are easier to play.
Acoustic Versus Electric
When learning how to bend strings, you are best to play on an electric guitar before moving on to acoustic because the strings on an electric are much easier to bend. Acoustic guitars have thicker and more abrasive strings that can cause your fingers to hurt because they require more bending to achieve the sound you want. Electric guitars also often have more flexible strings and lower frets that don't require you to push down as much.
Technique
The more often you play, the stronger your fingers and wrists will become. Wrist power is an important component of bending strings because much of the force comes from the joint. When bending the upper strings, the thumb is usually planted behind the guitar's neck, which allows the player to generate more strength from the wrist because of better positioning. You may also decide to generate power by using more than one finger to bend the string, though this isn't as efficient because it can put your fingers in bad positioning for the following notes.
Sound Resonance
When bending the guitar's string, musicians sometimes rapidly move the guitar's neck back and forth. This creates a wavy sound and is particularly noticeable when playing an electric with high gain or other distortion. Many songs feature this technique on the last note in the song, or on notes that have several bars before the subsequent sequence. The movement is comparable to a whammy bar, which pulls the strings after playing a note. Whammy bars, however, can throw your guitar out of tune.