Air guitar

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Example of air guitar
Example of air guitar

Air guitar is a form of dance and movement in which the performer pretends to play rock or heavy metal-style electric guitar solos. Playing an air guitar usually consists of exaggerated strumming and picking motions and is often coupled with loud singing or lip-synching. Air guitar is generally used in the imaginary simulation of loud electric guitar music.

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Examples of air guitar activities by heavy metal fans occurreed in the late 1970's. In the Iron Maiden DVD "The Early Years", former and current band members claimed that fans would come to shows with wooden cutout guitars and would emulate what was being played on stage. Eventually, the practice caught on with other fans, some of which did not have a homemade guitar and would just rock out on their "air guitars".

However, that belief is apparently wrong, because Musician Joe Cocker was possibly one of the first musicians to actively demonstrate air guitar technique on stage. During the guitar solo lead-in to his live performance of "With a Little Help From My Friends" at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969, he can be observed simulating the music with his hands, sans guitar.

Also, preceding that date by twelve years, Bill Reed, of the Diamonds, during a live TV performance, is seen playing the “air guitar” while doing his recitation on the song, “Words of Love”. This performance, circa 1957, has been added to You Tube from a kinescope recording, and is verifiable.

Organized air guitar competitions are regularly held in many countries. The first on-off air guitar competitions have been organized in the early 1980s in Sweden and in the United States. Since 1996 the annual Air Guitar World Championships contest has been a part of the Oulu Music Video Festival in Oulu, Finland which nowadays governs Air Guitar World Championships Network[1] of official national championship competitions. In 2007 the network consisted of seventeen countries: USA, Finland, Canada, The Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Mexico, Norway, United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
Rules have much in common with figure skating, especially using 6.0 score system. The most common set of rules are as following:

  • Each participant has to play air guitar on stage in two rounds, each lasting for 1 minute.
    • Round 1: participant plays a selection of their own choosing. Typically the song has been edited (or a medley has been created) to fit the 60-second format.
    • Round 2: participant plays a section of the song chosen by an organizer or competitor; usually the song is not announced beforehand and kept secret until the round begins, so a participant has to improvise.
  • Participant plays alone; backing bands, either with real or air instruments are not allowed; roadies and groupies are allowed to make up some image, but they have to leave the stage before performance.
  • Participant has to play air guitar (i.e. air drums, piano and other instruments are not allowed). Air guitar can be acoustic, electric or both.
  • Generally, there is no dress code and participant is encouraged to use any clothing and props that would add character and make the performance more interesting. However, any real musical equipment or crew (instruments, amplifiers, effect pedals, backing band members, etc) are strictly forbidden. Some events make an exception for a real guitar pick, some don't.
  • Jury consists of independent judges, usually famous musicians or music critics.
  • Judges use the same 6.0 score system as in figure skating: there are several criteria, each judge must give the contestant a score from 4.0 to 6.0 on each of the criteria. One lowest and one highest scores get discarded, all other scores are summed up. The contestant with maximal score wins.
  • The criteria may vary, but usually the following is accounted:
    • Technical merit — how much the performance looks like the real playing, including accurate reproduction of all fretwork, chords, solos and technical moves.
    • Stage presence — a charisma of rock star, the ability to rock, lack of stage fright and power to drive thousands of listeners; involves doing guitar moves and other emotional demonstrations.
    • Airness — the most subjective criterion, as "presentation" in figure skating — how much the performance was an object of art by itself, not only a simulation of playing guitar.

World championship (or, full name: "The Annual Air Guitar World Championship Contest") was first held in 1996 as part of the Oulu Music Video Festival in Oulu, Finland. Participants from all over the world competed in skills of playing air guitar. The judging panel included Finnish guitarist Juha Torvinen, and prizes included a custom made 'Flying Finn' guitar and VOX BM Special amplifier donated by Queen guitarist Brian May. The ideology behind the event was that "wars would end and all the bad things would go away if everyone just played air guitar".

The 11th World Air Guitar Championship finals were held in Oulu, Finland in September 2006. Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke of Japan competed against other international finalists and reigning champion Michael "The Destroyer" Heffels, to win the event.

The top 7 finalists were:

  • 1. Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke of Japan
  • 2. Clay "Bangers" Connolly of Australia
  • 3. Christian "Heart Buckboard" Sweep of Germany
  • 4. Gabriele "The Hoxton Creeper" Matzeu of the United Kingdom
  • 5. Takeshi "Takeshi the SAMURI Kongochi" Kongochi of Japan
  • 6.(tie) Craig "Hot Lixx Hulahan" Billmeier (USA)
  • 6.(tie) Rainer "Le Freak" Fussgänger (AUT)

Year World Champion Country Second Place
2007 Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke Japan Guillaume "Moche Pitt" de Tonquédec of France
2006 Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke Japan Clay "Bangers" Connolly of Australia
2005 Michael "The Destroyer" Heffels The Netherlands Giesela "Gizzy Guitar" Visser of New Zealand
2004 Joint Winners: MiRi "Sonyk-Rok" Park and Tarquin "The Tarkness" Keys USA and New Zealand David "C-Diddy" Jung of the USA
2003 David "C-Diddy" Jung USA Jordi "Funky Jordi" Nieuwenburg of The Netherlands
2002 Zac Monro UK Toby Peneha of New Zealand
2001 Zac Monro UK Markus Vainionpää of Finland
2000 Markus Vainionpää Finland Sari Rivinen of Finland
1999 Johanna Ala-Siurua Finland Petteri Tikkanen of Finland
1998 Juha Hippi Finland Teja Kotilainen of Finland
1997 Ville Paakkari Finland Jenni Pääskysaari of Finland
1996 Oikku Ylinen Finland Heko Rehtori of Finland

Championships generally follow international rules with minor exceptions and additions:

  • Participation is free.
  • Regionals take up to 12 participants. If there are more, additional qualification events take place.
  • Federal finals are held in July between the winners of regionals.
  • Winner of federal finals is qualified for World Championship in September.
  • Participants are allowed to team up to 2, only in regionals. Federal finals are still solo only.
  • Order of appearance in a second round is determined by the scores in the first round (highest score air guitarist plays first).
  • Jury consists of 5 people. Each of 2 rounds is scored by a single mark from 4.0 to 6.0. Lowest and highest mark get discarded, so only 3 marks are added, thus yielding possible results from 24.0 to 36.0.

Björn Türoque, author and perennial second-best air guitarist
Björn Türoque, author and perennial second-best air guitarist

Björn Türoque (pronounced "byorn to rock," and spelled with heavy metal umlauts; real name: Dan Crane) became a well-known air guitarist as a frequent finalist of World Championships. In 2003–2005 he competed in ten air guitar competitions around the world and came in second place five times out of ten. In 2006, he published a book To Air is Human: One Man's Quest to Become the World's Greatest Air Guitarist[1]. He hosts a set of events named "Aireoke" (a portmanteau of "air guitar" and "karaoke"). These events are held in relatively small local clubs and allow everyone to try becoming a rockstar for 1 minute, playing air guitar in public. Most successful persons performing in aireoke proceed to US championships.

On September 14, 2006, Björn appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Türoque also plays real bass guitar in the "faux-French" band Nous Non Plus under the name Jean-Luc Retard.

Students from the Helsinki University of Technology developed a system that translates hand movements into electric guitar sounds, resulting in a functional air guitar.[2] The system, consisting of a pair of brightly-coloured gloves and an infrared camera, is one of the most popular exhibits at the Helsinki Science Center. The camera recognizes the distance between the two gloves as well as strumming movements made by the wearer to synthesize an electric guitar tune, working using only six notes. No musical knowledge is necessary.

In November 2006, researchers at the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation announced they had developed a t-shirt that senses human movement to "showcase its expertise in designing and manufacturing electronic and intelligent textiles with which people effortlessly control computers", publicising it as an air guitar shirt.[3] [2] audio snippet

  1. ^ Turoque, Björn (2006). To Air is Human: One Man's Quest to Become the World's Greatest Air Guitarist. Riverhead Trade. ISBN 978-1594482106. 
  2. ^ Knight, Will. "Air guitarists’ rock dreams come true", New Scientist, 2005-11-28. Retrieved on 2006-08-02. 
  3. ^ Helmer, Richard. "It's not rocket science... it's rockin' science", CSIRO, 2006-11-13. Retrieved on 2006-11-14. 

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