Why Everybody Should Learn ITS LOVE by King's X!!!

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]There's a really good chance that your favorite guitar player's favorite guitar player is Ty Taber of Kings X. But what can us mirror mortals learn from his playing? Let's talk about that. Hey kids, it's your good buddy, Uncle Ben.

[00:00:10]Over my many years as a guitar teacher and touring musician, I've learned thousands of songs, and they've all taught me something that stuck with me and helped me along the way. Mastering tunes makes us better players, and that's why every guitarist should learn.

[00:00:22]It's Love by Kings X.

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[00:00:59]Heat. Heat.

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[00:02:02]Hey there kids. It's your good buddy, Uncle Ben. So, this is somehow the first Kings X video that I've ever done here on my channel, which is weird because you guys have been asking for one for years. And I've been listening to this band since I was probably like 10 or 12 years old whenever my older brother Noah and I saw the music video for Dog Man late one night on Z Music. You guys remember Zusic? It was like the Christian music MTV station from the '90s. So, I've been listening to these guys for a long time, and that's because they're one of the greatest rock trios in history. They got the amazing Beatlesque vocal harmony parts, the insanely sick riffs, great grooves, and of course, Tai Taber's incredible guitar playing. There's a lot that we can learn from him in terms of filling out the sound in one guitar band using really awesome chord and scale choices. And that's what we're going to talk about today. But you're going to get even more out of this video if you check out the extended and adree cut that's only available on the Patreon page.

[00:02:54]patreon.com/beneller guitars. Sign up today for just a buck a month. You're going to get access to that battler as well as hundreds of other bonus goodies. So don't delay.

[00:03:04]Sign up today over patreon.com/beneller guitars. I'll see you there. Tai is the god of the heavy Strat tone, which is why today I'll be playing my Fender American Ultra Stratacastaster here. And I've got that going through a couple of pedals. I'm using the Surir Woodshed compressor for that solo just for some extra fatness and sustain. And I'm also running through the Peppers Pedals Dirty Tree as a boost in front of my Bad Cat Hot Cat 50. Now, I'm pretty sure you know what time it is. Let's get into it.

[00:03:36]Difficulty-wise, if you're trying to learn this tune note forotee, you don't have too terribly much to worry about. I would say if you're playing just a rhythm guitar parts, this is probably like a I don't know, a four out of 10.

[00:03:45]It's not too bad. Uh, and if you're adding in that solo part, it's also not too terrible to play. So, even if you're not like a super shredder guy, you can probably get this down. I'll probably say that's like a five out of 10. If you want to play along with this track, you're going to need to put that rock guitar down in drop D-tuning. Song kicks off with that iconic riff that features some droning strings, some implied chord changes, and some of the awesome stuff that we can use to make ourselves sound bigger in a one guitar band.

[00:04:20]Check out the way that he's got that open D string droning through that entire intro part.

[00:04:31]Using open strings to make yourself sound bigger in a mix is a classic one guitar strategy. You can look at players like Alex Lifson from Rush, right? He's always got some kind of open droning string thing going on just to fill up more space in the mix. Other guys like Andy Timmans is amazing at that. Jimmy Paige did that a lot and so does Ty Taber. So the drone that we're using this whole time is your mom's favorite D. And he's playing some chord diads on the G and B strings. Sounds like he's going from like a Dsus 4 to D major.

[00:05:03]And then these changes kind of imply like a C major sort of sound to a G major.

[00:05:25]All of those chords are cut from the mixelyian scale, which is like the fun major scale. You know, if you took a regular D major scale and made the seventh note of it one note flatter, it sound like this.

[00:05:43]Do you hear where the scale kind of zigged where you thought it would zag right there?

[00:05:48]It's that flattened seven interval as opposed to the regular seven that a major scale has that gives this scale the character that it does.

[00:05:57]Whenever you're learning the modes, I think it's really important to pick a riff that represents the sound of each one of those modes to you. You know, I call this labeling your spice cabinet.

[00:06:05]You got to put names on these things in order to be able to recognize them in other places and recreate them whenever you want that particular sound. So, when you're thinking of mixelyian, maybe try thinking about the opening riff to this tune.

[00:06:19]They give us a little change of scenery when it goes to the verse. We go to like an A pedal tone and some more implied chord changes on top of it. Check this out.

[00:06:51]I saw an interview with Tai here on YouTube where he said that riff was inspired by George Lynch's playing, which makes sense whenever you think about it. Georgia does a lot of those like bass notes with little, you know, two string diads on top, only a little less bey.

[00:07:07]So, there's some really cool chords going on underneath that A bass note.

[00:07:10]Here we have an A5.

[00:07:14]Then he takes that root note and brings it down a half step, which gives us more of an A major 7 tonality.

[00:07:22]Then he's given us root, third, and flat 7.

[00:07:30]which are like the primary ingredients of an A7 chord. And then he's got two chords in one measure. The first one's like a G5 over A to a this is a inversion of a D chord.

[00:07:42]This is a D major over A.

[00:07:47]All the notes of a D chord just in a different order.

[00:07:59]And the second time through, he takes us down to right here, which feels like an F power chord under an A bass note.

[00:08:08]This is more like an inversion of an F chord. You know, an F chord is the notes F A C. This is A F C. Same notes just in a different order. Look at the way that that creates this chromatic movement in the bass note here. Right? Watch the D string.

[00:08:31]He gives us a full phantom whenever he takes us down at those bass notes, a major third like that. Something that on its own does not sound cool, right?

[00:08:41]Doesn't really have much melody to it.

[00:08:43]But when you pair it with those chords on top and the beautiful vocal harmonies, sounds amazing.

[00:08:55]The Beatles were especially amazing at making those chromatic moves like that work by using a variety of different chord inversions and stuff. You'll notice a lot of the chromatic moves that we're doing in there come from chord inversions, right? Like whenever we go from this to this to this.

[00:09:12]Yeah, that's uh the G5 over A. That's a D chord. That's an F chord. But if I would have played those in some other way that was just normal chord voicings like this, you don't have that graceful chromatic thing going on anymore, do you?

[00:09:32]That's gone when you just play them as big dumb rock player power chords. That's the value of learning inversions. You can make those cool little melodic moves like that happen if you know your way around them well enough.

[00:09:47]We're going to go back to our original tone center of D whenever we go back to the chorus. Only this time, it's more of a Dorian kind of D minor sound. Skip this out.

[00:10:15]One thing I think we can all learn from this is the power of variations in themes when you're writing tunes. Rather than just throwing out new part after new part after new part, base the next part off of something the listener has already heard. So in the verses, we're using this kind of rhythmic figure, right? Two bass notes and then a chord strike on top. Right?

[00:10:36]The chorus of the song takes that same idea and just puts it in a completely different language.

[00:10:45]There's like enough connective tissue between those parts where you can tell they belong in the same song. To me, that is a huge indicator of really effective songwriting. When the riffs for this song would only make sense in this song, you couldn't just plunk them into some other tune or whatever. That's when you know you're building a really cohesive motif or framework throughout a tune. So, I said earlier that the intro is based on D mixelyian, which is kind of like the major scale that knows how to party. Well, the chorus of the song is built around Dorian, which is kind of like the minor scale that likes to party. So, the regular minor scale features a flat 6. Sounds like this.

[00:11:22]But the Dorian features a natural six in there like a major scale would sometimes also call that one the Santana minor scale. It's a good way to dip into some of those darker waters without making it sound full-on, I don't know, sad like a lot of minor stuff does.

[00:11:49]See, there's that sixth in there again, the B note.

[00:11:55]And this guy right here, let's talk about this.

[00:12:00]This is another one straight out of the Alex Lifson playbook. This is a sus 2 power chord. Sometimes people call these add nines. That's not exactly correct.

[00:12:08]Let's talk about why. So, whenever you're in a drop tuning and you play the typical one finger on the bottom three strings power chord, right?

[00:12:15]That's spelling out root, fifth, and root intervalically.

[00:12:20]That's a power chord. It's not major or minor. It's just a a five chord. Now, whenever you take that grip right there, and move that second root note, that one right there, up one whole step, we're adding in what we call a sus two.

[00:12:37]Sus twos just have this, I don't know, this width to them. That's why guys like Alex Lifson and John Patrrui use them all the time in their stuff, too.

[00:12:45]That's like the Alex Lifson sound.

[00:12:48]Whenever you play it as a power chord like that, it just sounds a little bit more aggressive, a little bit more rocking, and it takes up a lot of space in one guitar mix. The reason that's not an add chord is because an add nine chord also has a third in it. Okay, remember this is just 1 2 5.

[00:13:06]To make it a full-on Yeah. add nine chord, it would need to also have the third, which in this case would be an A note.

[00:13:14]That's root, fifth, second, third.

[00:13:18]Again, that's a different kind of thing entirely from our sus two.

[00:13:22]Almost anywhere you could use a regular power chord, you could use this sus two power chord just for a little bit more interesting kind of harmony on top of it. So, next time you have a power chord riff that's not really hitting the way you want it to, just try subbing in some of those sus twos. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Use your ear, but it can be a great way to add some variety into a simple progression.

[00:13:44]We got to talk about the syncupation here because it is really weird. It's one of those things you can listen to once and sing along and remember it, but when you start trying to count it out and god forbid you're trying to play this and sing it like Tai is doing, I have no clue how he's doing that, it gets complicated fast. Uncle Ben in the editing chair here. It's in 6 over4.

[00:14:03]It's really syncopated though. Let me count over it. 1 2 3 4 5 6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 To me, it's awesome that it's that complicated, but it's still catchy. You know, just cuz something is oddly syncopated or in an odd time signature doesn't mean it can't be catchy. How about that chromatic thing he's got at the end right there? Right.

[00:14:37]I think it's a sus too there at the bottom. Sometimes live I see him play that, sometimes I don't. Uh he said in an interview that was based around that riff from Eric My Eye by Chichin Chong, which I think is hilarious and once you know that, you like can't unhear it. Tai solo in the song is perfect. It like follows the vibe and the changes of the tune exactly right. Features some really tasty bends and ver in there, some cool phrasing, and most importantly, it doesn't overstay its welcome. Because this is a feature of a lot of Kings X songs. There's like no fat to trim off of this thing. They can write stuff that's really heavy and really technical and like three minutes long. It's like they're pop songwriting geniuses that somehow ended up playing in this crazy heavy metal funk band or something.

[00:15:35]kicks it off with one of those monster David Gilmore neverending bends.

[00:15:42]He's starting off here on the F note and taking it up two whole steps to about a that's where having the flatter finger board that these ultras have on it really comes in handy. Keeps those notes from choking out too much. A little extra compression on there if you're using a compressor pedal or something will also help with the sustain. Now, as you take that bend up, be sure to use the buddy system here. Team lift that some You'll notice I'm not trying to make one finger do all the work. I'm fretting the note with my third finger and using my first and second behind it here to help push the string up.

[00:16:17]That's the only way to make that happen and not like rip your fingertips off.

[00:16:24]I love that like chirp that you can get whenever you're using a Strat on the neck pickup and using the pick to kind of stop the string like he does right there.

[00:16:34]Doesn't sound so good whenever you're playing it slow. You get that really obnoxious chirp sound.

[00:16:40]Not so great. But at speed just has that like really chewy tasty thing going on right there. I'm basically just kind of ramming the pick into the string using an upstroke.

[00:16:52]just to give it that extra little snarl on the notes.

[00:16:58]So, this solo is based mainly around D minor pentatonic and Dorian. It's over the chorus riff again.

[00:17:07]So, we're back in that D minor party mode, the Dorian sound. And the way that he phrases over this is to mostly use our traditional 10th position minor pentatonic box with a couple additions of that six in there. We talked about the six that the Dorian scale has earlier. He tosses that in there, especially on the B string.

[00:17:30]You're going to hear a lot of that in the next couple of phrases here.

[00:17:37]Notice that awesome VB that Tai has, man. He's really underrated in terms of being a lead player in my opinion.

[00:17:44]Whenever you learn somebody else's solo, it's really important to try to capture their flavor of sass. Don't skimp on the sass, man. I hear this all the time.

[00:17:52]People will learn like some wicked Marty Freriedman solo and they'll have all the fast licks down great, but when they land on a sustained note, their verb sounds like this. And it's like, okay, I know where you devoted your time. You worked on the fast parts. It didn't work on the subtleties, you know? But that VBR is the fingerprint of any player.

[00:18:11]You know, whenever you're trying to replicate the sound of a particular solo as close as you can, those are the details you have to really pay attention to. It's not just about nailing the fast licks and the chopsy parts and all that.

[00:18:21]That's important, too. Yeah. But that VBR, man, that is the identity of the player. So, as you're learning this stuff, try to really capture the sound that he's got right there. He's got a pretty wide VAB. It's nice and in time, nice and in tune as well. So, really pay attention to those details.

[00:18:41]See, there's him using that six again.

[00:18:46]I always think of that as being like the Steve Vi blues. You know, anytime Vi is playing bluesy stuff, he's almost always incorporating that six in there.

[00:18:56]Especially because you can bend it up to that flat 7.

[00:19:00]It's got a really cool sound to it.

[00:19:01]Again, keeps it from sounding too minor, too sad sounding. The groove in the solo is killer. That's something that I meant to mention earlier. Like all the rhythmic phrasing is just spoton and so locked into the drums and bass. It's crazy. That was honestly one of the hardest parts to replicate is just trying to nail that time feel. With Kings X, it's all about the groove all the freaking time, even in the solos.

[00:19:24]The bridge part of the song is after that, and we can learn a lot about resourceful songwriting here, because it's the same thing as the verse changes, just played with a different picking pattern and a way different groove on the drums and bass.

[00:19:58]Notice how they didn't just throw you another new part of the song. They reuse something from earlier and just put a new coat of paint on it. This is kind of like something that I see uh screenwriters refer to a lot where they're like, "Don't introduce a new character in the third act." By the time the third act of the movie rolls around, have all your characters introduced. And I find good songwriting follows that philosophy pretty closely, too. By the time you get this far into a song that you're writing, instead of introducing something new, just try translating something that you said earlier into a different language. You know, put a different vibe to it. Put a different picking pattern to it. just see another way you could say the same thing rather than throwing in another new character into the mix. So, the song ends the way that it started with that D-Mixelyian drone riff. And there's an overdub of Tai playing some really fantastic licks and stuff over. He's just kind of improvising some soloing here. And that's what he does live, too. This isn't like a written part that I'm going to show you how to play note fornotee.

[00:20:53]I'm sure there's some like Kings X fanatic here on YouTube that's already done that anyway. But the important thing to recognize here is the language that he's using. So that chord progression, right? We said it centers around what sounds kind of like Dsus 4 to D, then the C to G, which are all chords based around that D mixelyian scale. And a lot of his soloing does reflect that.

[00:21:31]Hey viewers, I uh turned my recording audio off at this point in the video and I never turned it back on. So enjoy the sound of Plinkcky unplugged electric guitar. Some of you guys might recognize that as like the Almond Brothers major scale, right? It's major but it's not as straight laced as you know do re the major scale. Now, here's a cool thing that happens though is in rock music, we can kind of blend the sound of that mixelyian scale with the more rock and roll, you know, minor, pentatonic, and blues scales, too. And there's kind of a reason for that and a way you can get away with it. Check this out. So, the main scales we've been using in the song have been the mixelyian scale and the Dorian scale. Right now, you might have just noticed those are only different by one note.

[00:22:23]Intervalically, the mixelyian scale goes 1 2 3 4 5 6 flat 7 1. The Dorian scale goes 1 2 flat 3. That's the different note. Then the rest of it's the same. 4 5 6 flat 7 1. So they're almost the same. The only difference is the Dorian has a flat third, the mixelyian has a regular third. So you can play all those same, you know, bluesy sounding licks and that fits in both scales. But whenever it's time to play the third, if I play F, it sounds dorian.

[00:23:01]If I play F sharp, the major third, it sounds mixelyian. What if I played what I think of as a neutral third?

[00:23:11]Do you hear that?

[00:23:16]This is something blues guys have been doing forever to kind of blend the worlds of major and minor tonalities.

[00:23:22]Play all that stuff, but whenever your fingers touch a third, just give it a little yank. Not like a half step bend, just a like a quarter step bend. Like what Dime used to call hick bends, right?

[00:23:43]And suddenly it has that is it major is it minor kind of confusing tonality to it. And that's what Tai does through the solo. He's changing up between the mixelyian scale and the more traditionally rock and roll neutral third Dorian pentatonic thing.

[00:24:05]Really awesome tune with some super effective songwriting and killer guitar work.

[00:24:12]So, there you go guys, the first deep dive into the Kings X catalog here on my channel, but I'm sure there's like a million other sick tunes you guys would like to see featured in one of these videos. So, let me know down in the comments section which one should be next. I love Dog Man. Black the Skies is really good. I don't know, there's so many to choose from. Be sure to give the video a like and subscribe to my channel and ring the bell for notifications every time I upload a new slice of fried gold right here for you guys. And if you want to get even more out of this video, check out the extended adree cut and all the hundreds of other goodies that are waiting for you over on the Patreon page. patreon.com/beneller guitars. Even a buck a month gets you access to all kinds of good stuff. So don't delay. Sign up today. As you go through your week, keep a good thought and be nice to each other out there.

[00:24:53]Whether that's in the real world or in the internet world in those comment sections or whatever. We can make the world a better place one act of kindness at a time. And it starts with us. So as you go through your week, just be good to each other. Do something good for somebody. Pay somebody a random compliment. Buy somebody a cup of coffee. Whatever. Start making the world a better place. Now get away from this computer machine. Grab that rock guitar and start mashing some rope. Let's click it. More picking.