Learn about guitar theory. Applying music theory to the guitar fretboard. Scales, chords, chord progressions, modes and more. Taught by Desi Serna author of Fretboard Theory.
My guitar theory video lessons feature a Paul Reed Smith CE24 electric guitar played through a Line 6 Pod Pro. I use the Pod's left/mono XLR out in Live mode. It goes into a Mackie mixer and then I take a line out into the camera.The Pod Pro sounds much better than the regular Pod. I think it's the XLR output that makes all the difference. It's not a real amp, but an amp modeler. I agree with the purists that the tone from real amps is better, but amps are impractical in some settings. The Line 6 products are very easy to use and sound good enough to me.
A favorite trick of mine is to create a patch with the drive and channel volume all the way up, and then turn the volume on the guitar down to about 3 or 4. You can get some great blues tone this way particularly on the Line 6 BLACK PANEL amp model. If you crank up the reverb and add a little delay, it can sound like you got a cabinet cranked up in the next room.
By the way, turning the volume on the guitar down works well on my PRS because rolling off the volume doesn't also take away the high end. If your guitar sound becomes muddy when you do this, then look into installing a volume pot mod. It only costs a few dollars.
Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo is based on the A minor pentatonic scale and A minor scale (natural minor or Aeolian mode).
The intro uses the chords F5 G5 A5 and then a C5. This chord movement is very common and stems from a 4 5 6 chord progression in the A natural minor scale (Aeolian mode, C major scale). But only power chords are played (if you listen closely you can hear that a 6th interval is added to the F5 and G5 giving it a blues shuffle style). Instead of using the full minor scale over these changes the guitars mainly stick to A minor pentatonic (as heard in the riff at the end of the chord figure).
The E7 (0:28 in the video) is technically a key change, but you could treat it like a blues 5 chord and continue playing A minor pentatonic over it. You could think of it as the 5 chord in the key of A major and play A major scale patterns over it. You could treat it as a blues key change and play a mixture of E major and E minor pentatonic scales over it. Or it could possibly be thought of as a 5 (V7) chord in A harmonic minor (but this might sound a bit too exotic for this bluesy rock song). Or you could not play over it at all, as is the case in the song.
The verse (0:51 in the video) uses the chords A5 C5 D5. Again, these power chords still stem from the A natural minor scale (Aeolian mode, C major scale). All of these notes are also found in the A minor pentatonic. The guitar riff that occurs after each line of the verse is the A minor pentatonic with a chromatic passing tone added (blues scale). See guitar tab below.
Verse Riff: A Minor Pentatonic "Blues" Scale Patterns 3 & 4 E----------------------|------------------| B----------------------|------------------| G------14--14-12-------|----------12b(14)-| D----------------14-13-|-12-10------------| A--12------------------|------------------| E----------------------|------------------|
"Any tips for guitar players with small fingers/hands?"
With guitar playing, there are advantages and disadvantages with all hand sizes. If you have small hands or short fingers, then my advice is to not try to play like you have big hands or long fingers.
I met Brent Mason, one of Nashville's top session guitarists and an amazing player, and was surprised at how small his hands were (he's a little guy). He can do things that I can't do as well with my long fingers (like fret some chord shapes and play rapidly in tight spaces). He plays to his strength and I have to play to mine.
I usually feel more comfortable playing scale patterns that are spread out, like three-notes-per-string patterns. A guitarist with smaller hands probably does better to use scale patterns that fit into smaller positions.
Find what you can do well and... do it well! You may need to play some things differently than the recordings or skip them altogether, but this shouldn't hold you back. It certainly isn't holding Brent Mason back (see video linked to below).
