JOEL HOEKSTRA Video Masterclass
We welcome rock virtuoso Joel Hoekstra who demonstrates key aspects of his lead style on Jason Sidwell’s track, Slither. Featuring a slick sounding, fast-paced 12/8 groove with some diminished harmony, Jon Bishop is your guide.
Whitesnake’s fabulous guitarist Joel plays and explains a cracking solo over Jason’s Slither.
This month GT is proud to present Joel Hoekstra who solos over Jason’s track, Slither. Joel’s playing is both melodic and stunning with numerous techniques used. You may know Joel from his work with Whitesnake and Night Ranger, and also from live duties with Cher, touring with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and guitar ‘chair one’ on Broadway’s run of Rock Of Ages.
Slither has a fast paced 12/8 time feel. This means there are 12, eighth notes in each bar, divided into four groups of three. This can be counted 1 + a, 2 + a, 3 + a, 4 + a. Due to the fast tempo of 160 beats per minute the main rhythmic subdivision that Joel uses to create his lines is the eighth note. The track is made up of three main sections. These are the verse, chorus and the middle or solo section.
The verse is based in the key of F# Minor and for this section Joel uses a mixture of the F# Blues scale (F#-A-B-C-C#-E-F#) and the F# Half-Whole Diminished Scale (F#-G-AA#-C-C#-D#-E) The melodies are written with the idea of laying low and complementing the band in a considered way, until the time is right to burn. Joel also uses the concept of recycling the melodies in the repeated sections by taking them up an octave. This is a very effective technique for creating excitement (just think of the vocal melody from Heroes by David Bowie).
The chorus section shifts to the relative Major key (A) so the fingerings for the F# Minor Pentatonic will still work as they function as the A Major Pentatonic. Joel skilfully navigates the chords here by using string bending to access the chord tones. He waits until the middle section to bring out his soloing chops. For this section the key shifts to E Minor and Joel uses the E Minor Pentatonic scale (E-G-A-B-D) and the E Dorian mode (E-F#-G-A- C#-D).
To spice up the lead work Joel uses a variety of techniques including string bending, finger slides, whammy bar antics, finger vibrato, double-stops, hammer-ons and pull-offs and hybrid picking. He employs the hybrid picking technique (pick and fingers together) to articulate lines that have notes on adjacent strings in quick succession. The pick is used for the down pick notes and the second and third fingers are used to pluck the strings.
Joel provides an in-depth analysis of his approach in the video lesson and to aid you in digesting this we have tabbed out 15 of these examples from his explanations.
The notation contains all of the articulations and phrasing from the video performance. It’d be well worth taking a close look at the way Joel fingers and picks the phrases, as you can learn a lot from such a privileged position. Hopefully there will be a new technique, lick or phrase in here for you to perfect. If you find one you like, then you can memorise it and use it in future solos.
Once you have understood and accommodated the concepts, phrases and licks in Joel’s solo why not try creating a solo of your own over Slither? To help you we have included a complete one-page chord chart of the track so you can plan out your key zones and phrasing approaches. Have fun and see you next time!
NEXT MONTH GT presents an exclusive duo performance with Jon Herington (Steely Dan) and Allen Hinds (Randy Crawford) together on Jason’s Street Allure!
“If you are looking for a lesson in combining melodic rock lead guitar with jaw dropping flashy moments then this is the one!”