By the time you’re reading this, I’ll have landed in Copenhagen, where I’m working for the next couple of days. The newsletter is a lot of fun this week, despite me having limited time to write it - I’m sharing a great band who I’ve listened to for decades, and who I’ve seen live countless times. I’m also asking you what your favorite guitar apps are - I’m trying to spruce up my favorite guitar apps post, and want to know what you’re using. For Smart Guitarist, I’m sharing a short post on why the major scale is so important, and then of course we have our usual batch of helpful links. I might be a little burnt out for next week’s issue by the time I get back to the States, but I’ll think of something! Let’s jump right in to this week’s issue.
If you came up in the ska scene like I did, you’ve likely heard of bands like Streetlight Manifesto, The Hippos, The Slackers, and Rx Bandits. They might not be household names like No Doubt, but in that scene they were huge - everyone had their CDs. I played in a few ska bands myself in high school before drifting into other genres, but Rx Bandits are one of those bands from that era whose music I still play today. I’ve seen them more times than I can count, own every album on CD, and this one specifically on colored vinyl. I like to think I did my small part repping this band around the NJ scene back in high school and college. So when the 20th anniversary edition of …And The Battle Begun dropped, I had to talk about it.
What makes this record hold up two decades later is the guitar work, and that starts with Matt Embree. His vocals and guitar carry the whole album, but the real depth comes from how he and Steve Choi build the sound together, Choi playing some awesome lead lines and adding some texture on keys while Embree’s guitar and voice push the songs forward. Both were playing Les Pauls live on the tours I caught, and I’m fairly sure that’s what’s on the record too. It’s not a flashy dual-lead thing, it’s more filling out the song around the horn flourishes and a rhythm section that’s exciting.
Worth saying too, this band started off very ska, but by this point in their catalog they’d already turned into a rock band that just happens to still carry ska elements, horns and all, rather than a heavier ska band. It’s a big part of why I think the album still sounds fresh these days.
I’m not going to point you to one track. The album is great from front to back, which is rare. I will say this though, I’ve watched a room go crazy when the title track starts building, that slow climb before it opens up is one of those live moments where everyone in the crowd is ready! The reissue adds four live tracks, so if you’ve never seen this band live, that’s your way in.
Embree has done a ton of other stuff outside of RxB, playing with other bands, releasing a solo record, starting a record label. If you like his work here, there’s lots of good music to go around. I’ve also met him a handful of times over the years, and he’s been genuinely gracious and humble every time. It’s nice when you meet your musical heroes and they’re down to earth.
If you’ve never spent time with this album, or with Rx Bandits at all, this is a great album to start with. If you enjoy this, go backwards and check out The Resignation, and if you want more of the ska elements, check out anything from Progress or earlier.
Over the years some of my most popular posts on the Chasing Sound blog have been the list format ones - favorite guitar books, favorite YouTube channels, that kind of thing. One that’s always gotten a lot of traffic is my guitar apps list. It’s overdue for a refresh, and I want to get it right before I update it later this year.
The current list has stuff like chord dictionaries, metronomes, tuners, full-blown learning platforms. I’ve already got a few new additions locked in, and I’ve been talking with some developers directly about apps worth considering too.
But I don’t want to miss anything. So tell me: what’s actually in your rotation? Your go-to tuner, your metronome, backing track app, setlist app, the tab app you open when trying to learn a song. If there’s a hidden gem out there I haven’t come across, now’s the time to flag it.
Hit reply or drop a comment, whichever’s easier.
And if you’re a developer building a guitar app, I’d genuinely love to hear from you too. Email me at brian@chasingsound.com.
As a guitarist, the major scale is our key to unlocking all sorts of ideas in music. You can think of it like your guiding light. Here are three key reasons why the major scale is crucial for guitarists:
It ignites our curious mind - Knowing the WWHWWWH pattern of the major scale starts us off on our theory journey. Once you know the major scale, you can make chords from it, transform it into other scales and modes, and understand key signatures. This knowledge not only enhances our understanding of theory but also helps us recognize patterns across the fretboard.
It’ll save you time - I think of everything in a major key, even when I’m trying to play something minor. Rather than learning all this theory from scratch, I just figure out what notes to flatten or sharpen based on what I’m trying to do. If you’re trying to learn modes, there’s even a super easy way of changing one note from mode to mode to learn all of them. We only have limited time to practice, so why waste time where it’s unnecessary?
It’s flexible - There are countless songs and licks based off of the major scale. Starting from its base state, you can start to understand what other guitarists are doing, and how they’ve altered the major scale to make their own ideas. Plus, if you need to transpose songs in a pinch, once you learn the major scale pattern, it’s easy to move around the entire neck to play in key.
The major scale is the most important scale you’ll ever learn. Want me to drill down more into this idea? Let me know by replying to this week’s issue!
This short post originally appeared on my blog, which you can check out here.
No individual commentary on links this week, but I did want to share what I’m checking out. We have a very fun history of CAGED, Eric Johnson breaking down his touring rig, a history of the PRS SE line, some fantastic Marty Friedman licks, and much more. Like I said above, I’ll be out this week, so if you have any great guitar links you’d like to send my way, either reply to the email or comment on Substack!
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