Learn to play three fun and easy riffs by Kings X with Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman, aka Uncle D. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the step by step video instruction and you will be rockin’ these killer riffs tonight!
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I’ve got three fun riffs for you from Kings X.
Right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart. It’s in PDF format has every chord you could ever need all neatly compiled onto one sheet. So you can download it, print it off, put it in your gig bag, put it where you practice; so any chord you could ever need at a glance and it’s a free download, just click the link in the description.
So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look at these.
Kings X Riff-1 – Over My Head
All right so the first one we’re going to look at is the riff from Over My Head. This is the very first song that I ever heard by these guys and the guitarist for Kings X, Ty Tabor, is one of my just all-time favorite guitar players. I’ve had the opportunity to meet him a couple times and opened up for King’s X one time; it was really awesome. He’s really cool dude and really interesting guitar player. All right so for this one we are just in standard tuning, which is kind of unusual as you’ll see as we go through this. He plays with some different tunings, usually just drop tunings, but sometimes you know it’s like drop D, drop C sharp; it just gets lower sometimes and this one is just made up of some basic power chords that you should probably already know. So we’ve got this D5 and so just first fingers at the fifth fret of the A string and then I’m picking up the seventh fret of the D and the G string with my third and fourth finger you can just barre like this, however you want to do it. So we hit this as a quarter note, so this is one two and. So we had a quarter note for all beat one and then the downbeat of beat two is just the open low E string, but it’s just an eighth note and then we’re going to move this power chord shape up a whole step to E5. So now we’re at the seventh fret on the A string and the ninth fret on the D and or G string. We hit that and three, the and of three is the open low E string and the downbeat of four is the third fret of the low E string and we’re just going to do a half step bend and then the and of four is the open string and that’s our first measure. And on the second measure we’re going to bring that power chord shape down to the third fret on the A string on the fifth fret of the D and G string for C5 and we hit that one and on the and of one we hit the open low E string then for the downbeat of two we just move it up a whole step to D5 and then open the low E string and then up a whole step to the E5; so that’s like one and two and three and then two open low E for four and. Okay then starting on the third measure it’s like the first measure, we do the D5 to E5; so that’s one two and three and. So the and of three is just the open low E string and then we go into this really kind of weird little pull-off lick we’re going to come down to the second fret on the D string and we’re going to pick that and pull to the open string, that’s four and, then to the next measure we’re going to go to the fourth fret of the A string. So what I like to do is one on the D string I use my first finger and now we’re going to go to the fourth fret on the D string, down beat of one, pick that and pull it off to the open string, one and, now we’re going to go to the low E string third fret, so I’m going to use my middle finger, two and, and then this kind of signature Ty Tabor chord here and this is a movable shape too. So in this case right here it’s B flat suspended four over C (Bbsus4/C); so what I’m doing is my first finger is picking up the third fret of the A string and my second finger is picking up the third fret of the G string and the D string just gets muted and my first finger is just touching it on the pad side there it’s just kind of muting it and then you can use your third finger your pinky whatever’s more comfortable, I just usually use my third onto the third fret of the B string and the first string is muted and you throw some vibrato on it. So that’s the whole riff. Grabbing that chord quickly is probably the hardest part of this, for me anyway and then it would just repeat…
Kings X Riff-2 – Black Flag
All right, so the next one to look at is the riff from Black Flag. Now for this one it’s just in drop D. So you’re still in standard tuning, you’re just going to tune your low E string down a whole step to D. All right, so this one here is pretty easy. We start off with the open low E string played twice palm muted; one and, and then we’ve got this little power chord F over C (F/C). So you need to pick up the third fret of the A string and the D string. So you could use one finger and if you’re going to do that it really doesn’t matter which finger, first or your second finger would be fine. Now that’s on the downbeat of two and then on the and of two the open low E string again and now we’ve got an F over B (F/B). So all we’re going to do is that same little chord except the note on the A string moving down a half step so we’re at the second fret, but on the D string with the third fret. All right so when we hit this on the downbeat of three and it’s a dotted quarter note so it’s going to be three four and then on the and of four we’re gonna barre the fifth fret of the E and the A string. So we’re hitting that on the and of four and then on the next measure on the downbeat of one we’re gonna just move that from the fifth fret down to the third fret; so I’m barring the third fret of the E and the A string. And then the E and the A string open, so that’s one and, and now we’re going to go to a d5. So it’s just a regular d chord, but without the high e string. so it’s just the d string open, second fret of the G string and third fret of the B string and that’s coming in on the downbeat of two, but it’s a dotted quarter note, so it’s two three and the and of three we hit the open low E string and the and of four is open and then the whole thing would just repeat…
Kings X Riff-3 – Dogman
All right and then the last one we’re going to look at is the riff from Dogman. This is one of my absolute favorite riffs from Ty Tabor. This is just so heavy and just so cool sounding. I just love this riff. So for this one it’s in drop C sharp. So what you need to do is you first tune your whole guitar down a half step and then tune your low E down so it’s going to be the same as the D string, but since the D string is two down a half step it’s actually going to be C#. Now you could play this riff just in regular drop D, but you won’t be in the same key that they’re in. All right so this riff we’re going to start off on the seventh fret I’m Barring the seventh fret of the E, A and D string, if you can only get just the E and the A string that’s fine. One and then on the and of one we come down a half step so I’m using my third finger to my second finger and I’ll show you why here in a second. So we’ve got one and then on the downbeat of two we’re going to take our third finger and now we’re going to barre the seventh fret of the D and the G string and this is a sixteenth note. So it’s going to be quick and then we come back to the sixth fret of the low E and D string and then back to that again. So to the fifth fret of the E, A and D string and that’s why we were using these fingers like that; so, so far… Okay so after we hit that five there then we’re going to come move our first finger down a whole step so now they’re at the third fret and it’s going to go three five three open with palm muting and that’s 16th notes and then we rest on the very last 16th note and that’s the whole first measure… Okay then starting on the second measure on the downbeat of one we’re back up to that same lower barre, this D5 over A (D5/A). So we go from that to the sixth fret of the E, A and D to the open E to the fifth fret then back to that D5/A back to the five the third fret here again, which is a G5, and then open. Okay now we hit that that’s on the and of three and then that chord that we did in Over My Head, we’re just going to do that same chord, but up a whole step; so my first fingers on the fifth fret of the A string and my second finger is on the fret of the G string and my third finger is getting the sixth fret of the B string and remember you want the D and the high E strings muted and it’s four e and, and then the whole thing, it doesn’t just repeat right away. The song actually starts off with that chord and then just the drums and everything are going and the guitar is just kind of doing this and they sing over it… so that’s when it goes back into that again, but the main thing I wanted you to get out of this was just this… so again that’s probably the hardest part of this for me is grabbing that chord consistently.
Conclusion
All right, so there you have it, three fun riffs by Kings X, one of my all-time favorite guitar players Ty Tabor. So if you like this lesson be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if you have any questions about this or other guitar related topics. If you’ve not already done so please subscribe to the channel and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss any of the content that we upload throughout the week. Well that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
