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Air guitar

Contests

Wikinews has related news: Japanese man retains title at Air Guitar World Championship in Finland

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 currently governs Air Guitar World Championships Network 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

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, Brazil and Belgium.

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 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 meritow much the performance looks like the real playing, including accurate reproduction of all fretwork, chords, solos and technical moves.

Stage presence 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.

Airnesshe most subjective criterion, as “presentation” in figure skatingow 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 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.”

List of World Championships

Source: http://www.airguitarworldchampionships.com/2009/EN/history.html

Year

Gold

Silver

Bronze

2009

 Sylvain “Gunther Love” Quimene (FRA)

 Craig “Hot Lixx Hulahan” Billmeier / Andrew “William Ocean” Litz (USA)

2008

 Craig “Hot Lixx Hulahan” Billmeier (USA)

 Andel “John Sniffler” Soree (NED)

 Cole “Johnny Utah” Manson (CAN)

2007

 Ochi “Dainoji” Yosuke (JPN)

 Guillaume “Moche Pitt” de Tonqudec (FRA)

 Max “Herr Jaquelin” Heller (AUT)

2006

 Ochi “Dainoji” Yosuke (JPN)

 Clay “Bangers” Connolly (AUS)

 Christian “Heart Buckboard” Sweep (GER)

2005

 Michael “Destroyer” Heffels (NED)

 Giesela “Gizzy Guitar” Visser (NZL)

 Gyuri “Pelvis Fenderbender” Vergouw (NED)

2004

 Tarquin “The Tarkness” Keys (NZL)

 Miri “Sonyk-Rok” Park (USA)

 David “C-Diddy” Jung (USA)

2003

 David “C-Diddy” Jung (USA)

 Jordi “Funky Jordi” Nieuwenburg (NED)

 Zade of Italy (ITA)

2002

 Zac “Mr. Magnet” Monro (GBR)

 Toby Peneha (NZL)

 Andrew Buckles (CAN)

2001

 Zac “Mr. Magnet” Monro (GBR)

 Markus Vainionp (FIN)

 Rupert Abrahams (GBR)

2000

 Markus Vainionp (FIN)

 Sari Rivinen (FIN)

 Anthony Lee (AUS)

1999

 Johanna Ala-Siurua (FIN)

 Petteri Tikkanen (FIN)

 Arnaud Stephan (FRA)

1998

 Juha Hippi (FIN)

 Teja Kotilainen (FIN)

 Danny Turano (AUS)

1997

 Ville Paakkari (FIN)

 Jenni Pskysaari (FIN)

 Mika Mntykentt (FIN)

1996

 Oikku Ylinen (FIN)

 Rehtori-Heko (FIN)

 Petri Heikkinen (FIN)

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

Returning 2006 United States champion Craig Billmeier, who uses the stage name Hot Lixx Hulahan, claimed a second national title in the 2008 US Air Guitar National Finals, held in San Francisco, on August 8, 2008. Hulahan won the title despite fracturing his thumb during the first round of competition.

United Kingdom

The Official UK Air Guitar Championships is the longest running air guitar championships in the world. The competition was established between 1994 and 1995 by Jeffrey Louis-Reed and is still to this day the only Air Guitar Championships dedicated to fans of rock where the audience are the judges.

It was founded in the upstairs of a pub called ‘The Pig in Paradise’ which is in central Brighton, England

The competition brought the BBC Ski Sunday presenter Ed Leigh to the stage in 2000 for him to become the UK Air Guitar Champion in 2000, 2001 and 2002 along with Colin ‘Cozza’ Fulker who won 2006, 2007 and 2008 to become the UK’s most successful champions.

Many Air Bands were founded in Brighton in the late 90’s with acts known as ‘Dum BN3′, ‘PISS’ and ‘Triple Slash’. There were many more who all took part in the UK Air Guitar Championships and a few of them won.

2009 Saw the Declan Gillick aka ‘Deku Chan’ win the competition to see the UK trophy stolen by Declan the Irishman, who dazzled the audience to a safe victory. It was also the first year that drinks manufacturer WKD sponsored the competition.

Official UK Air Guitar Championships

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 Helsinki University of Technology developed a system that translates hand movements into electric guitar sounds, resulting in a functional air guitar. 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.

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. 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 Fuhrer and his team.

See also

Air Guitar Nation, a documentary film about the 2003 US and World Air Guitar competitions

Crowd surfing

Guitar Hero (series)

Guitar solo

Headbanging

List of dances

Moshing

Stage diving

Air Guitar in Oulu, a documentary film following a young air guitarist’s mission to attend the World Championship in Oulu

References

^ http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_12541395

^ Knight, Will (28 November 2005). “Air guitarists rock dreams come true”. New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8383. Retrieved 31 May 2008. 

^ Helmer, Richard (13 November 2006). “It’s not rocket science… it’s rockin’ science”. CSIRO. http://www.csiro.au/science/AirGuitar.html. Retrieved 31 May 2008. 

^ “Every wanna-be rocker’s fantasy comes true”. 13 November 2006. http://www.csiro.au/news/ps2gl.html. Retrieved 31 May 2008. 

^ “Japanese Company Produces Playable Air Guitar”. July 22, 2008. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287115,00.html. 

^ “Frets Afire: The Three Leading Air-Guitar Toys”. Feb 18, 2008. http://www.brandweek.com/bw/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003711866. 

External links

Official Air Guitar World Championships Network Countries

World The Air Guitar World Championships

Australia Australian Air Guitar Championships

Belgium Air Guitar Belgium Championships

Brazil Air Guitar Brazil

Canada Air Guitar Canada

France Air Guitar France

Germany The German Air Guitar Federation

Greece Air Guitar Greece

Japan Air Guitar Japan

The Netherlands The Dutch Air Guitar Championships

New Zealand New Zealand Air Guitar Championships

Norway Air Guitar Norway

Romania Air Guitar Romania

Russia Air Guitar Russia

Switzerland Air Guitar Switzerland

Taiwan Air Guitar Taiwan

Thailand Air Guitar Thailand

UK Air guitar UK UK Championship

US The US Air Guitar Championships

Other Air Guitar Contests

UKhe Official & oldest UK Air Guitar Championships in the world

Italyhe Italian Air Guitar Championship

Articles

Behind the Scenes at the US Air Guitar Championships Photos and interviews with the 2007 Washington DC finalists

No more silent shredding November 2006 Associated Press piece about Air Guitar sound technology.

“Dude, where’s my guitar?”ugust 2001 Guardian (UK) feature about the UK championship.

Student studying for a degree in Air Guitar

Air Guitar Nation Rocks On Video clips and interview with the world air guitar champion

Music for the imaginary ax man Msnbc article following the life of an air guitarist.

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003711866

Other

The Virtual Air Guitar Company

Bjrn Troque

Hot Lixx Hulahan – 2006 US National Air Guitar Champion

The Rockness Monster – 2005 US National Air Guitar Champion

Amanda Griffiths Air Guitar PhD Blog

Official C-Diddy Fan Site

Joe Cocker Woodstock Air Guitar Performance

Air Guitar Nation Feature Film

Air Guitar Strings

NPR Piece about US Air Guitar Championships

William Ocean – 2007 US Air Guitar Champion

Category Sixx, a US Air Band

Air Busk Competition

Air Guitar in Oulu Film Official Site

Magic Cyclops Air Guitar Podcast

Guitar portal

Categories: Dance behavior | Heavy metal | Syllabus-free dance | String instruments | Guitars | Guitar performance techniques | Heavy metal subcultureHidden categories: Articles needing additional references from February 2010 | All articles needing additional references

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