How to Read a Unison Bend Guitar Tabs

Guitar tabs help players figure out what other players are doing on the fretboard. Although tabs are not extremely helpful on basics like rhythm and scale notes, they are very good for seeing what techniques a guitar player uses in a riff or solo. One of these techniques is unison bending, a slight variation on the common bend (where a guitar player bends a string to change note tone). Here's how to follow up on a unison bend on tabs.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Recognize the notation for a bend. In printed guitar tabs (where all kinds of lines and symbols show up), tab writers represent a bend with an arrow going up. The amount of bend is sometimes shown as a fraction of a step. On ASCI tabs, where tab writers can only use computer characters, they show a bend as a lower case "b."

2. Find unison bends in tabs. A unison bend in a printed tab will have the note with a bend arrow directly under or above another note on an adjacent string. In ASCI tabs, writers use "ub" for a unison bend, with the ub placed on the string that you'll be bending.

3. Follow up on the tab directions. Put both of your fingers on the two frets marked on the tabs.

4. Pluck both strings at the same time.

5. Hold both fingers on the strings to let the two notes sustain and ring out. Bend only the string with the ub or arrow symbol while letting the two notes sustain. You'll hear the sound of a static note together with a rising note.