Chords for Whitesnake's Joel Hoekstra Plays His Favorite Riffs

Hey everybody, this is Joel Hoekstra of Whitesnake Trans-Siberian Orchestra and my project Joel Hoekstra's 13 and you're watching Loudwire.
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Okay, so what made me want to start playing?
Well, I would say it was the early days of MTV and seeing ACDC on there, a Back in Black [E] video just_
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_ _ _ _ [N] Anyway, I just loved Angus's energy and his stage presence and obviously the songs were so awesome.
So I was really hooked on rock at that point and I asked my parents for a guitar.
The first riff I got to learn was from my first teacher.
I went in the first week and he taught me how to play the verse riff for Paranoid, Black Sabbath.
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I remember just [Gb] not having an app at that point in time and just plugging into the auxiliary input on our home stereo [G] and turning it all the way up to like 10 when my parents weren't home [N] and driving the entire neighborhood completely nuts, I'm sure.
As far as teachers go in the early going, _ _ initially I started out on my stepmom's acoustic and I had a teacher teaching me out of the Alfred's Method book only.
And I was like, man, this reminds me of piano lessons and cello lessons from when I was younger and not feeling like very fun.
I want to be that guy in ACDC.
How do I do that?
So thankfully I went over to a friend's house and he [Gb] had an electric guitar.
He plugged in and was playing.
_ _ _ [N] I was like, dude, where'd you learn that?
I was a crazy train a little bit, right? _
And he said, oh, man, you got to go to my teacher.
He teaches rock songs.
And so I did indeed.
And that's the teacher that taught me the riff to Paranoid.
And he would teach me songs every week in addition to learning how to read and some of the important things.
And then from there, I'd say after about a year and a half, they hired another teacher _ named TJ Helmer, who's an outstanding guitar player.
_ And he taught me theory and soloing in addition to finger technique because he was starting out on that and developing it.
And so that's something that came full circle for me, ending up being able to be a Night Ranger and do the Rock in America part.
Once I learned that power chord and learned Paranoid, I started to piece together things just by ear from having a sense of pitch developed from piano and cello, like how to, you know, like [B] Iron Man.
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_ [D] _ _ [E] _ _ [C] I really loved Black [Bb] Sabbath in the early going and some of the single note riffs, too, like [E] Electric Funeral.
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_ [E] _ _ [N] _ loved, loved Black Sabbath in the early days.
I mentioned [A] ACDC and there were plenty of those that I started to piece together. _ _ _ _
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_ [A] _ _ _ Obviously, great fun for me to put that one together.
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[G] those about to rock.
_ _ _ Anyway, lots of the [E] ACDC stuff in the early days for me.
Love that band.
They were my favorite and loved Iron Maiden.
So like the Trooper.
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Loved those [A] guys, played a Vicar.
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_ _ _ [E] _ Big influence on me.
Loved the Scorpions, you know, piecing together from knowing the power chord.
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[D] _ _ [E] big riffs for me when I was a kid.
Loved the Dio stuff, you know.
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[B] _ _ that stuff was great.
Loved Holy Diver as a record when I was a kid.
Wore that out.
I should say cassette.
Wore that cassette out.
That's more accurate.
As far as my first solo goes, I remember taking in the solo to Crazy Train to TJ Helmer to transcribe for me.
I loved, obviously, that tapping bit at the top really inspired me as a kid [Gbm] hearing that.
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_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [N] not sure I have that last run right.
That's one of those things you learn when you're a kid.
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As far as the first riff I ever wrote, that would be off the first record I had out from Joel Hoosier's 13 called Dying to Live.
There was a song called Anymore on [Am] there. _ _
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_ _ _ [N] _ _ There were some older songs I think that I had pulled from other things that probably were written technically before, but they weren't written specifically with that album in mind.
That one I remember writing in a hotel room back when I was still on tour with Night Ranger and thinking, come on, let's straight ahead rock.
That's what these Joel Hoosier's 13 albums are all about.
Just melodic hard rock that's kind of Dio-ish at its heaviest from my roots and I'd say foreigner-ish at its lightest.
As far as favorite Joel Hoosier's 13 riffs from my side project, _ the ones that come to mind off the top of my head are there's a track on the new album Running Games called Heart Attack.
Now, typically it's down a step on the record.
I'm in standard here.
It's a very blues-inspired, kind of white-stinky kind of riff.
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[N] _ _ _ that's the first one that comes to mind.
The second one I would say is the opening track of Finish [E] Line.
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_ [Bm] _ _ _ There's a cool animated video on YouTube for that if you guys want to go check it out.
There's a song later on on the record that's really heavy called Take What's Mine.
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[Eb] _ So as far as my favorite riff from Running Games, the new album, I would say it's probably that second riff from Take What's Mine.
It's a very simple riff, very metal, but I just love it.
It just gets my head bobbing.
Anyway, I hope this has been informative for you guys.
I hope you enjoyed it.
I hope I played all the riffs the right way.
_ _ I don't know.
You learn these when you're younger and sometimes you just don't know.
_ Anyway, I hope you guys have a great one.
Let's hope [A] 2021 is a great year for all of us.
I certainly missed the road.
I hope to get back out there and entertain you guys.
Hopefully, you all have a chance to say hello.
All right.
Cheers, guys.
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