And her improvisational melodies, which are her own, with bent notes that seem like sighs, laced the songs.

In other music, characteristic rhythmic and tonal devices - bent notes, blue notes, falling thirds - come through.

She knows that a bent note in the right place conjures up expectations of bluesy authenticity, even in listeners who should know better.

I play nuances everybody understands," he said, "like a bent note on the guitar.

A bent note is a musical note that is varied in pitch.

The bent note is commonly found in various forms of jazz and blues.

Rock songs used to twang all the time, and every bent note was a link to rock's country-and-blues pedigree.

Mr. Freeman is a master of bent, tortured and leering notes.

Vilayat Khan let float big bent notes, quivering with vibrato.

It's just so much more fun to play ... when bent notes slice right through you like a razor blade.