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Biography
Refimprove|date=February 2010Playing air guitar is a form of dance and movement in which the performer imagination|pretends to play Rock music|rock or heavy metal music|heavy metal -style electric guitar , including riffs, solos, etc. Playing an air guitar usually consists of exaggerated strumming and guitar pick|picking motions and is often coupled with loud singing or Lip sync|lip-synching . Air guitar is generally used in the imaginary simulation of loud electric guitar music.
Contests
Wikinews|Japanese man retains title at Air Guitar World Championship in FinlandOrganized air guitar competitions are regularly held in many countries. The first on-off air guitar competitions were 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 currently governs Air Guitar World Championships Network http://www.airguitarworldchampionships.com/2009/EN/agwc-network.htmlDead link|date=July 2010 of official national championship competitions. The idea of the contest was originally coined as a joke, meant only to be a side attraction for the music video festival, but has since become a major draw in its own right. http://www.airguitarworldchampionships.com/2009/EN/history.htmlDead link|date=July 2010 In 2009 the Network consisted of twenty countries: Finland, USA, New Zealand, Canada, The Netherlands, Greece, Belgium, Norway, United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Japan, Australia, Germany, Taiwan, Thailand, Russia, Romania, and Brazil.
Rules have much in common with figure skating , especially using Figure skating#The 6.0 System|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 Improvisation|improvise .
Participant plays alone; backing bands, either with real or air instruments are not allowed; Road crew|roadie s and groupie s 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, guitar amplifier|amplifiers , Effects unit|effect pedal s, 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 B-list musicians, music critics, comedians, or other members of the media.
Judges use the same 6.0 score system as in figure skating: there are several varying criteria, 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.
* 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 (full name: "The Annual Air Guitar World Championship Contest") were 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 (musical equipment)|VOX BM Special amplifier donated by Queen (band)|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."
List of World Championships
2011
flagIOCathlete>Aline “The Devil's Niece” Westphal
flagIOCathlete>Justin “Nordic Thunder” Howard
flagIOCathlete>Veronica “Like Ever Gin” Mullerova
2010
flagIOCathlete>Sylvain “Gunther Love” Quimene
flagIOCathlete>Soraya “Eva Gina Runner” Garlenq
flagIOCathlete>Cole “Johnny Utah” Manson
2009
flagIOCathlete>Sylvain “Gunther Love” Quimene
flagIOCathlete>Craig “Hot Lixx Hulahan” Billmeier / Andrew “William Ocean” Litz
2008
flagIOCathlete> Craig Billmeier
flagIOCathlete>Andel “John Sniffler” Soree
flagIOCathlete>Cole “Johnny Utah” Manson
2007
flagIOCathlete>Ochi “Dainoji” Yosuke
flagIOCathlete>Guillaume “Moche Pitt” de Tonquédec
http://www.airguitarworldchampionships.com/2009/EN/history.html Air Guitar World Championships
Austria
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.
United States
Competitive air guitar began in the United States in 2003, when Cedric Devitt and Kriston Rucker founded US Air Guitar, the official governing body of air guitar in the US.cite news| url= http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2005815,00.html | work=Time | title=The Air Guitar | first=Charlie | last=Duerr | date=22 July 2010 The 2003 US Air Guitar Championships included just two regional competitions, in New York and Los Angeles , with the national championship taking place in Los Angeles. David "C-Diddy" Jung won the competition, becoming the first ever US Air Guitar Champion and earning a spot in the World Air Guitar Championships. He was accompanied by fellow American Dan "Bjorn Turoque" Crane, who raised money to pay for his trip to Finland, where he qualified for the World Championships through a Dark Horse competition. At the World Championships, C-Diddy emerged victorious, becoming the first American to win the title of World Air Guitar Champion. Jung and Crane were featured in the 2006 documentary Air Guitar Nation , a film that documented their 2003 journey, from the United States to Finland.
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, and went on to Finland , where she tied for first place, becoming the 2004 World Air Guitar Co-Champion.cite news| url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html? res=9A02E7DC143DF933A25754C0A9639C8B63& sec=& spon=& pagewanted=2 | work=The New York Times | title=Play That Funky ... Oh, Never Mind | first=Dan | last=Crane | date=10 July 2005
By 2008, US Air Guitar had expanded to include regional competitions in twenty-four cities throughout the country. The 2006 US Air Guitar Champion, Craig "Hot Lixx Hulahan" Billmeier, went on to defeat 2005 Champion Fatima "Rockness Monster" Hoang and 2007 Champion Andrew "William Ocean" Litz en route to his second national title. In Finland, Hulahan emerged victorious, securing the United States' third world title and becoming the 2008 World Air Guitar Champion.cite news| url= http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/02/eveningnews/main4986897.shtml | work=CBS News | title=No Stopping The World Air Guitar Champion | date=2 May 2009
William Ocean captured his second national title in 2009, earning him a spot in Finland at the 2009 World Air Guitar Championships. William Ocean and defending World Air Guitar Champion Hot Lixx Hulahan tied for second place, behind Sylvain "Gunther Love" Quimene of France .cite news| url= http://www.news.com.au/gunther-love-crowned-world-air-guitar-champion/story-e6frfmq9-1225765141000 | work=AFP | title='Gunther Love' crowned world air guitar champion | date=22 August 2009
Matt "Romeo Dance Cheetah" Cornelison was the 2010 US Air Guitar Champion, finishing in eleventh place at the 2010 World Air Guitar Championships.
The reigning US Air Guitar Champion is Justin "Nordic Thunder" Howard, who won the 2011 US Air Guitar Championships at Chicago's Metro Chicago|Metro on July 23, 2011.
List of United States Championships
2011
flagIOCathlete>Justin “Nordic Thunder” Howard, Chicago
flagIOCathlete>Matt “Airistotle” Burns, New York City
There are currently two national air guitar championships running in the UK, both claiming status as the 'official' competition.
The UK Air Guitar Championships (UKAG) is the longest running air guitar championships in the world, established between 1994 and 1995 by Jeffrey Louis-Reed, and is still to this day the only Air Guitar Championships where the audience are the judges. It is also the only UK competition that tours the whole UK to find a true champion.
The similarly named, Air Guitar UK Championships (AGUK) was created in 2006 by two time world Air Guitar champion Zac Monro. It originated over the issues of how to decide the competition (through the audience, or by a figure-skating style 6.0 system|judging system ), and over membership of the World Air Guitar Network (UKAG were unwilling to pay to participate in the World Championships, as their competition wished to remain free, which was the main cause of the creation of AGUK). However this is the only championship officially recognised as part of Air Guitar World Championships (AGWC)
air The Air Guitar UK Championship was created in in 2006 by twice air guitar world champion Zac 'the Magnet' Monroe (the first non-Fin to win the competitioncite news| url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,544692,00.html | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=My week: Zac Monro) and is affiliated with the Air Guitar World Championships in Oulu , Finland , forming part of the Air_guitar#Official_Air_Guitar_World_Championships_Network_Countries | 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 http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/air-way-to-heaven-for-guitarists-1.981574) as part of the Air Guitar UK Network.
The first official Championship was held in August 2006 at the Academy Islington, London, and was won by Gabi “The Hoxton Creeper” Matzeu, who was sent to Finland as the UK’s 1st Official Champion.
In 2007, in the run-up to release of the cult Film Air Guitar Nation , the second Championship played once again to a full house at the Academy. It was held at the Academy until 2010, and in 2011 moved to The Garage, Islington.
Air Guitar UK events are held in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust . Air Guitar is considered a force for good, and in the absence of world peace this is at least something.
All profits from all of the Air Guitar UK events are donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust (www.teenagecancertrust.org).
AGUK's official site can be found at http://www.airguitaruk.com/
UKAG
The UK Air Guitar Championships were founded in the upstairs of a pub called 'The Pig in Paradise' which is in central Brighton, England. The UK Air Guitar championships annually hosts regional championships in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the north and south of England to find the best competitors from the UK and bring them to the national final stage to battle for crown of UK Air Guitar Champion
Christopher 'Crispy' Vearncombe won the competition in 2005, but was killed in a road traffic accident in South Africa weeks before the 2006 competition. His many friends hold an annual charity music festival in his memory. Crispystock is held in his home town of Andover, Hampshire. Next came Colin 'Cozza' Fulker who won 2006, 2007 and 2008 to become one of the UKAG's most successful champions.
2009 saw Declan Gillick aka 'Deku Chan' win the competition. It was also the first year that drinks manufacturer WKD sponsored the competition. 2010 - UKAG returned to London for the national final; the winner of the southern England heat, 'Eddie Six Strings' aka Sophie Scutt, wriggled her way into the final and beat 'Juan Nightstand' to become the first ever female UK Air Guitar Champion.
Many air bands were founded in Brighton in the late 90s with acts such as 'Dum BN3', 'PISS', Satans underpants and 'Triple Slash'. There were many more who all took part in the UK Air Guitar Championships and a few of them won.
UKAG work's regularly with various charities including RAFA, The 1800 Club and Action Medical Research
Website: http://www.ukairguitar.com
Innovations
There are multiple technological innovations that try to allow air guitar to be played as real instrument, producing sounds that depend on air guitarist's actions.
In 2005, students from the Aalto University School of Science and Technology|Helsinki University of Technology developed a system that translates hand movements into electric guitar sounds, resulting in a functional air guitar.cite news | url = http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns? id=dn8383 | title = Air guitarists’ rock dreams come true | first = Will | last = Knight | publisher = New Scientist | date = 28 November 2005 | accessdate = 31 May 2008 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 Australia n 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.cite news |url = http://www.csiro.au/science/AirGuitar.html |title = It's not rocket science... it's rockin' science |first = Richard |last = Helmer |publisher = Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation|CSIRO |date = 13 November 2006 |accessdate = 31 May 2008 cite news |url = http://www.csiro.au/news/ps2gl.html |title = Every wanna-be rocker's fantasy comes true |date = 13 November 2006 |accessdate = 31 May 2008
In 2007, toy company Silverlit introduced V-Beat Air Guitar, an air guitar gadget. The three part device 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.cite web|title=The Gadget Show Music Themed Focus Group |url= http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/videos/focus-group/focus-group-tests-music-gadgets|date= July 7, 2008cite web|title=The Gadget Show Music Themed Focus Group (YouTube)|url= http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=GdeFpXKH2b4|date= July 7, 2008 The V-Beat Air Guitar was created by Dutch startup 1upToys .
In 2007, a Japanese 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 the guitar sounds.cite news|title=Japanese Company Produces Playable Air Guitar |url= http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287115,00.html|date=July 22, 2008 | work=Fox News This guitar simulator was made popular in the UK motoring show Top Gear by presenter Jeremy Clarkson. He was seen playing the Tomy Guitar Rockstar in one of Top Gear's famous challenges.
In March 2008, Jada Toys of California introduced the Air Guitar Rocker toy which featured 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 amp attached to the users pant 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.cite web|title=Frets Afire: The Three Leading Air-Guitar Toys|url= http://www.brandweek.com/bw/magazine/article_display.jsp? vnu_content_id=1003711866|date=February 18, 2008
In June 2011, San Francisco, CA startup Yobble announced the Air Guitar Move, an appcessory for iPhone and iPod Touch.citation needed|date=July 2011 Users holds the iPhone in one hand and a motion sensing guitar pick in the other. Based on the motions of both hands, the Air Guitar Move software is able to recognize air guitar movements. The bundled game is a mix of Guitar Hero and Dance Central . Red Bull donated $20,000 to the project and is organizing events around Air Guitar Move.citation needed|date=July 2011
See also
Portal|Guitar
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
External links
Official Air Guitar World Championships Network Countries
World — http://www.airguitarworldchampionships.com The Air Guitar World Championships
Australia — http://www.airguitaraustralia.com Australian Air Guitar Championships
Belgium — http://www.airguitarbelgium.com Air Guitar Belgium Championships
Brazil — http://www.airguitarbrazil.com.br Air Guitar Brazil
Canada — http://www.airguitarcanada.ca Air Guitar Canada
France — http://www.airguitarfrance.com Air Guitar France
Germany — http://www.germanairguitarfederation.de The German Air Guitar Federation
Greece — http://www.airguitargreece.com Air Guitar Greece
Japan — http://airguitar.jp/ Air Guitar Japan
The Netherlands — http://www.air-guitar.nl The Dutch Air Guitar Championships
New Zealand — http://www.airguitaraustralia.com New Zealand Air Guitar Championships
Norway — http://www.airguitar.no Air Guitar Norway
Romania — http://www.airguitar.ro Air Guitar Romania
Russia — http://www.airguitar.ru Air Guitar Russia
Switzerland — http://www.airguitar.ch Air Guitar Switzerland
Taiwan — http://www.airguitar.com.tw Air Guitar Taiwan
Thailand — http://www.airguitarthailand.com Air Guitar Thailand
UK — http://www.airguitaruk.com Air guitar UK – UK Championship
US — http://www.airguitarusa.com The US Air Guitar Championships
Mexico — http://www.airguitar.com.mx Air Guitar Mexico
Other Air Guitar Contests
UK— http://www.ukairguitar.com The Official UK & oldest Air Guitar Championships in the world
Italy— http://www.airguitaritalia.com The Italian Air Guitar Championship
Articles
http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/live-dc/air-guitar-draft/ Behind the Scenes at the US Air Guitar Championships – Photos and interviews with the 2007 Washington DC finalists
http://asap.ap.org/stories/1018803.s No more silent shredding—A November 2006 Associated Press piece about Air Guitar sound technology.
http://www.stevecake.com/WORDS/wj%20rednekmulletz.htm "Dude, where's my guitar? "—August 2001 Guardian (UK) feature about the UK championship.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1484480.html? menu=news.quirkies Student studying for a degree in Air Guitar
http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/05/10/air-guitar-nation-rocks-on/ Air Guitar Nation Rocks On – Video clips and interview with the world air guitar champion
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5489428/ Music for the imaginary ax man – Msnbc article following the life of an air guitarist.
http://radiohappyhour.com/blog/listen-to-episode-11-w-the-postelles-david-dondero-and-william-ocean William Ocean performs and is interviewed on Radio Happy Hour
