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Hoekstra holding court at Musicians Institute.
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IT’S HARD TO SAY WHO THE HARDEST-working man in the guitar business is, but
Joel Hoekstra would certainly make a strong
contender for the title. Fresh off a massive
arena tour with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, the
versatile lead guitar sharpshooter will now
spend a huge chunk of 2011 on a lengthy
world tour with Night Ranger. And whenever
Hoekstra finally returns to his home in
New York City, his “down time” consists of
playing eight shows a week on Broadway,
maintaining his role as the over-the-top ’80s
rock guitarslinger in the hit Broadway musical
Rock of Ages.
In Hollywood for the musical’s recent LA
premier, Hoekstra stopped by his alma mater,
Musicians Institute (class of ’92), to say hi to
the place where he tracked many sessions for
his three solo albums, and to humbly pass on
some of his experience to the next generation
of guitar professionals. First, Hoekstra offered
a theory on why it is he lands so much highprofile work. “Maybe it has do with how obsessively
I prepare and shed for each new gig,”
says Hoekstra, who has also been a hired gun
for everyone from the Turtles and Alan Parsons
to Ray Parker Jr. and Joe Lynn Turner. “A lot of
times, the first time I play with a band is not
at rehearsal, but onstage, at soundcheck, the
day of the gig. From the first note, I want it
to sound like I’ve been in the band for years.”
One reason Hoekstra got the Night Ranger
gig was because he is so handy at eight-finger
hammer-ons à la Jeff Watson (one of the
band’s founding guitarists; the one Hoekstra
replaced). But octa-digital tapping isn’t
the only time Hoekstra employs the extra
fingers on his picking hand.
“I also do a lot of hybrid-picked stuff,”
says the guitarist of his penchant for using
a pick-and-fingers attack to sound riffs and
melodies. Ex. 1 demonstrates Hoekstra-style
hybrid picking at its simplest. Played evenly
and confidently, and perhaps with a touch
of palm muting at the bridge, the phrase
sounds good at any tempo.
“The line is straight out of the A minor
pentatonic scale,” says Hoekstra. “Hold
your pick between your thumb and index
finger. In each pair of notes, the first note—
the higher one—is plucked with the middle
finger [m], and the second note is picked
with a downstroke. And, if you like a more
‘outside’ sound, try shifting the second half
of each measure either up or down a halfstep
[Ex. 2]. That plucking finger is really
useful for string skips, too [Ex. 3].”
Before this lesson closes, be sure to
test drive more extreme hybrid licks from
Hoekstra—specifically, hybrid-picked phrases
that employ all available plucking fingers
on the picking hand. “First, start by adding
the ring finger [a],” suggests Hoekstra,
playing a rising power chord progression
in Ex. 4. “In this example, each new chord
root is the next note in the A blues scale.”
Now, if you haven’t already, check out
the very helpful video of this lesson. It features
Hoekstra demonstrating every example
here (and much more), including the
hybrid tour de force that opens the video
and closes this lesson, Ex. 5. A rippling
Am-C phrase that works the A Dorian mode,
this final riff employs every finger on both
hands, including regular plucks of the picking
hand’s pinky [c]. “Like all the riffs in
this lesson, it sounds great with tons of
distortion,” says Hoekstra, “provided you
sound each note independently, so the
notes don’t mash together.”
Jude Gold is GP’s Los Angeles Editor and
Director of GIT, the Guitar Program at Musicians
Institute in Hollywood, California. Comments?
Email him at jgold@mi.edu.