Air guitar
Air guitar is a form of dance and movement in which the performer pretends to play an imaginary rock or heavy metal-style electric guitar, including riffs and 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 or acoustic guitar music.
History
Musical pantomime, the mimicking of the playing of an instrument, originated in the 1860s, when it was considered to be a mental illness. The popularity of the phonograph in the 1930s led to the phenomenon of "shadow conducting", in which listeners would pretend to conduct an orchestra.[1]
Air guitar had a seminal moment at the Woodstock music festival in 1969, when singer Joe Cocker mimicked the playing of the keyboard and guitar during his performance of "With a Little Help From My Friends". Cocker's elaborate signature moves helped display air guitar to the public.[2]
The term "air guitar" gained popularity in the 1980s; one of the first air guitar contests held at Florida State University in 1978. More contests occurred in Sweden and the United States during the 1980s, and since 1996, the annual Air Guitar World Championships have been a part of the Oulu Music Video Festival in Oulu, Finland, and the festival currently administers the Air Guitar World Championships Network of official national championship competitions.[3] The idea of the contest was originated a joke that was intended to be a side attraction for the music video festival but has since become a major draw in its own right.[4]
Contests
Air guitar contests have much in common with the figure skating scoring system, 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 one minute.
- Round 1: participant plays a selection of her or his choice. 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 the 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 must 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. Any real musical equipment or crew (instruments, amplifiers, effect pedals, and backing band members) are strictly forbidden. Some events make an exception for a real guitar pick.
- Jury consists of independent judges, usually B-list musicians, music critics, comedians, or other members of the media.
- Judges use the same 6.0 score system as in the traditional figure skating system: there are several varying criteria, and each judge must give the contestant a score from 4.0 to 6.0 on each of the following:
- Technical merit—how much the performance looks like the real playing, including accurate reproduction of all fretwork, chords, solos and technical moves.
- Mimesmanship—how convincingly the performers can mime their performance, and create the illusion of an invisible guitar, apart from the technical accuracy of the fretwork
- Stage presence—a charisma of rock star, the ability to rock, lack of stage fright and power to drive thousands of listeners; involves guitar showmanship 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
Annual world championships, officially named "The Annual Air Guitar World Championship Contest", were first held in 1996 as part of the Oulu Music Video Festival in Oulu, Finland, and now held there each August. The ideology behind the event is "wars would end and all the bad things would go away if everyone just played air guitar"
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.
List of World Championships
List of World Championships[4]
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United States
In 2003, Cedric Devitt and Kriston Rucker founded US Air Guitar, the official governing body of air guitar in the US.[5]
The 2004 US Air Guitar Championships featured regional competitions in five cities. MiRi "Sonyk-Rok" Park, winner of the New York City regional, took the national crown by defeating Fatima "The Rockness Monster" Hoang from Los Angeles. She went to Finland, where she tied for first place, becoming the 2004 World Air Guitar Co-Champion.[6]
By 2008, US Air Guitar had expanded to include regional competitions in 24 cities. The 2006 US Air Guitar Champion, Craig "Hot Lixx Hulahan" Billmeier, went on to defeat 2005 Champion Fatima "The Rockness Monster" Hoang and 2007 Champion Andrew "William Ocean" Litz en route to his second national title. In Finland, Hulahan won, securing the United States' third world title and becoming the 2008 World Air Guitar Champion.[7]
William Ocean won his second national title in 2009, earning him a spot in Finland at the 2009 World Air Guitar Championships. Ocean and defending World Air Guitar Champion Hulahan tied for second place, behind Sylvain "Gunther Love" Quimene of France.[8]
List of United States Championships
List of United States Championships[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
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United Kingdom
The Air Guitar UK Championship was created in 2006 by twice air guitar world champion Zac 'the Magnet' Monroe (the first non-Finn to win the competition[16]) and is affiliated with the Air Guitar World Championships in Oulu, Finland, forming part of the World Air Guitar Network.
In September 2011, Air Guitar UK launched Air Guitar Wales and Air Guitar Northern Ireland to join Air Guitar Scotland (first launched by AGUK in 2009[17]) as part of the Air Guitar UK Network.
Air Guitar UK events are held in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust.[18]
UKAG
UK Air Guitar (UKAG) works regularly with charities including RAFA, The 1800 Club and Action Medical Research.[19]
Innovations
Multiple technological innovations allow air guitar to be played as a real instrument, producing sounds that depend on the air guitarist's actions. In 2005, students from the Helsinki University of Technology developed a system that translates hand movements into electric guitar sounds, resulting in a functional air guitar.[20] 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 and the strumming movements made by the wearer to synthesize an electric guitar tune, working using only six notes.
In November 2006, researchers at the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) announced they had developed a tee-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.[21][22]
In 2007, toy company Silverlit introduced V-Beat Air Guitar, a device that consists of a motion-sensing guitar pick, a neck part with four buttons and a guitar body. By changing the distance between body and neck, and pressing a combination of the four buttons on the neck part, up to 48 tones and chords can be played. The V-Beat Air Guitar was won 'Best Music Gadget' on the television program The Gadget Show.[23][24]
In 2007, a Japanese toy company Takara Tomy introduced Air Guitar Pro (Guitar Rockstar), a functional guitar simulator. Fitting in one hand, the device uses heat and motion sensors to detect the other hand motions and produce guitar sounds.[25]
In March 2008, Jada Toys of California introduced the Air Guitar Rocker toy that included patented technology in a belt buckle. When the user strums a magnetic pick in front of the belt buckle, guitar music plays through a portable amplifier attached to the users pants or belt. The Air Guitar Rocker is marketed with the popular Guitar Hero license and was created by toy inventor David Führer and his team.[26]
See also
- Air Guitar Nation, a documentary film about the 2003 US and World Air Guitar competitions
- Air Guitar in Oulu, a documentary film following a young air guitarist's mission to attend the World Championship in Oulu
References
- Guerrieri, Matthew (2016-06-23). "Air guitar, from elaborate lark to utopian gesture". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
- White, April (July 2019). "An Electrifying History of Air Guitar". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
- "Ilmakitaransoiton MM-kisat Oulussa". Air Guitar World Championships.
- "Air Guitar World Championships 2009". Archived from the original on August 22, 2009.
- Duerr, Charlie (22 July 2010). "The Air Guitar". Time.
- Crane, Dan (10 July 2005). "Play That Funky ... Oh, Never Mind". The New York Times.
- "No Stopping The World Air Guitar Champion". CBS News. 2 May 2009.
- "'Gunther Love' crowned world air guitar champion". AFP. 22 August 2009.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-04-03. Retrieved 2011-04-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "US Air Guitar". 27 March 2012. Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
- "US Air Guitar". 30 July 2010. Archived from the original on 30 July 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
- "Wayback Machine" (PDF). 22 July 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
- Guitar, Us Air (18 August 2008). "US Air Guitar blog: US Champion Crowned, Bill Murray Approves". Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
- Guitar, Us Air (19 August 2007). "William Ocean wins the 2007 US Air Guitar Championships". Archived from the original on 2 June 2008. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
- Guitar, Us Air (18 July 2005). "Rockness Monster wins the 2005 US Air Guitar Championships". Archived from the original on 24 June 2008. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
- "My week: Zac Monro". The Guardian. London.
- "Air-way to heaven for 'guitarists' (From Evening Times)". Eveningtimes.co.uk. 2009-07-29. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20070216235714/http://www.airguitaruk.com/
- http://www.ukairguitar.com
- Knight, Will (28 November 2005). "Air guitarists' rock dreams come true". New Scientist. Retrieved 31 May 2008.
- Helmer, Richard (13 November 2006). "It's not rocket science... it's rockin' science". CSIRO. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 31 May 2008.
- "Every wanna-be rocker's fantasy comes true". 13 November 2006. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 31 May 2008.
- "Play some real guitar. Check out some unique guitar accessories". December 20, 2018. Archived from the original on April 18, 2013.
- "The Gadget Show Music Themed Focus Group (YouTube)". July 7, 2008.
- "Japanese Company Produces Playable Air Guitar". Fox News. July 22, 2008. Archived from the original on 2012-10-20. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
- "Frets Afire: The Three Leading Air-Guitar Toys". February 18, 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-01-29.
Further reading
- "No more silent shredding". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29.
A November 2006 Associated Press piece about Air Guitar sound technology
- "Dude, where's my guitar?". Guardian (UK). August 2001. Archived from the original on 2007-10-08.
feature about the UK championship
- "Student studying for a degree in Air Guitar". Archived from the original on 2005-11-29.
- "Air Guitar Nation Rocks On".
Video clips and interview with the world air guitar champion
- "Music for the imaginary ax man". Msnbc.
- "William Ocean performs and is interviewed on Radio Happy Hour". Archived from the original on 2011-07-15.
- "Just call him Brock McRock".
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