oy 04 4 diet z GUITARPLAYER.COM Johnny Hiland BY MATT BLACKE “WHEN I FIRST HEARD GUYS LIKE Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, and Jimmy Olan der playing with B-benders,” recalls Johnny Hiland, “I didn’t know what a B-bender wwas. [learned their licks without a bender, and that really helped me develop precise bends.” That's the truth, At an exclusive lesson for GP at Prairie Sun Studios, Hiland demonstrated some of his gorgeous, sick, and twisted bends. ees s $—} — 3 — 3where I “4 gor to the point,” he says, ‘would take any scale and bend all the notes.” He then goes through Ex.1 in A major. This is trickier than you might think, thanks toll the wound-string bends, some of which he ‘executes with only his index finger. “T found I could take an Asus2 and bend upto the major 3rd,” says Hiland as he plays c2. "This isactually moveable,” he explains, and finishes the lick with sweet bends that tend up on a great-sounding A7 voicing. Hold the notes on the D string super steady and yank the G string toward the ground with your third finger (supported by your second). Hiland then demos the licks in x3, varia- tions of which can be used toflesh outa 12-bar blues n A. Heads some muted notesin the 1st bar to keep things clucky and throws in some tangy minor seconds over the D and E chords. One of his coolest licks was how he nav- gated a move to the IV chord in a country shuffle in C, in Ex 4, “When I get to the F chord, I bend the F note up a whole tone, then I bend the C up a whole tone, Then I grab the A, bend ita half-step up to aBy, and bend the C under it up a whole-step. Then release them both and land back on the F chord.” To execute this, you'll need to bend the string toward the ceiling while you pull the string in the opposite direction toward the floor. Ifyou nail it, chough, it wll create cone of the dreamiest sounds ever, with one chord melting and morphing into the other. Bend it lke Hiland! auita: AYER.COM BY POPULAR MLD ROLL Ce m U7 ib MC PANN) ANIIIKt EGTA i 95