Today's lick and variation involve a technique called "Pre-bend and Release". This technique involves bending a note up to the desired pitch before it is struck. Then once the note is struck and held for the intended duration it is released to another pitch. A famous example of this is the guitar solo in "Smoke on the Water" by Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple. In this song the guitarist employs a pre bend and release technique and picks the string on its release several times during a slow rhythmic descent in pitch.
In our example the initial bent note is held for a whole bar and then gradually released. In the second variation I pick the note once it is released. Follow the tab for the note sequence but use your ears to decipher the rhythm as with most blues transcriptions tab is only a rough outline of the final musical example.
