This exercise is from the Core Skills section on Bends.

If you hear a guitarist talking about Half Step Bends and Whole Step Bends here is what they mean...

In normal guitar playing, each fret = 1 'half step'. So if you play any string, at any point, and move up or down by 1 fret - you have just moved by a half step. A half step is one note / fret along the string from your starting note.

A 'whole step' is the distance between 2 frets. So, if you play a note and move along the string by 2 frets from your starting note, you will have moved a whole step.

So when you play a 'half step bend' - rather than moving up by one fret and playing the next fret along, simply bend the note until it sounds like it is 1 fret higher. For 'whole step bends' - bend the string even further so that your target note sounds like it is 2 frets higher.

Just to confuse matters. In Europe people call half steps and whole steps by slightly different names - but they mean the same thing. In Europe these are often referred to as semitones (half step) and tones (whole step).

In ActionTabs you can listen to the audio and let your ear guide you to get the right degree of bend. However, it is still useful to know about half steps and whole steps.

In this exercise we shall play a number of bends. Some are half step bends, others are whole step bends. See if you can tell the difference! (Hint - if you can't hear the difference easily, watch how far the bend 'dots' move in the ActionTab!)

Use supporting fingers - especially for the bigger bends.