How do blues guitarists use string bending to imitate the human voice?

Blues guitarists use string bending—often referred to as "choking"—to imitate the human voice by manipulating the pitch of a note after it has been plucked. By physically pushing or pulling the string across the guitar neck, the performer creates expressive, microtonal inflections that mimic the nuances of vocal phrasing, such as the rise and fall of speech or the emotional quality of a lament.12

This technique is a core element of the blues tradition, which is fundamentally a vocal form rooted in African musical traditions. Just as talking drums were historically used to replicate the rhythm and inflection of spoken language, blues guitarists use bending and the application of a slide to make their instruments "talk" or "speak". This allows the guitar to produce a whining, mournful, or "voicelike" sound that complements or answers the singer's own emotional expression.12