Air guitar, the art of playing, well, nothing, has earned a place in rock ‘n’ roll culture with competitions, a documentary and an inspired video game. Still, many are wondering, how exactly do you jam on an intangible instrument?
For a few University students, air guitar and the inspired “Guitar Hero” video game are a way of expressing their interest in music without suffering sore fingers and investing long hours into the actual instrument.
“It’s how I dance to music,” said Jesse Tannehill, a University senior who began playing the air guitar when he started listening to music in middle school. “That’s just how I listen to it,” he said.
Tannehill said he realized early that he lacked musical ability, in part because he was impatient when it came to learning how to play an instrument. Air guitar is the method he uses to enjoy music and relate to what he is listening to, he said.
Stacey Stewart, a University sophomore, said she played the guitar when she was younger, but also lacked the drive to invest the time needed to play what she wanted to listen to.
“I still pick it up every so often, but it’s frustrating because what I hear I can’t actually portray with the strings,” she said. “You know how to play a chord, you know the fingering and chord progression, but you can’t actually do it.”
Stewart, whose favorite air guitar solo is Jimi Hendrix’s “Bold as Love,” began air jamming in high school as a fun activity with her friends.
Last year Stewart was introduced to the “Guitar Hero” video game, which Tannehill described as a heightened sense of air guitar because your actions actually affect the music.
Nick Cummings, a University junior and “Guitar Hero” enthusiast, described the game as reading simplified music where players push buttons and strum a plastic guitar, earning points for accuracy, difficulty and stylized movement, such as raising the guitar, which has a tilt sensor.
“Just about anybody can pick this plastic guitar up and sound like a rock star in minutes,” he said.
Cummings, who has won three out of the four “Guitar Hero” competitions he entered, said playing the game has inspired him to pick up the real guitar.
“As I’ve played more and more I’ve learned some actual techniques that could be translated to real guitar,” he said.
Stewart said playing the air guitar, which spurred her interest in “Guitar Hero,” has also inspired her to play the real guitar more, although the ridiculousness of air guitar isn’t something she’s willing to give up.
“I try to be ridiculous,” she said, demonstrating an air guitar solo by sitting on her knees with an arched back, squinting her eyes and biting her lower lip while strumming the air around her hip. “The sliding is essential,” she said.
Tannehill said he enjoys getting looks from people while lip-synching and air-strumming on the bus or walking down the street. AC/DC and Metallica were once his favorite artists to air guitar to, but now he does it to almost anything.
“I listen to a wider range of music, but air guitar informs the way I move to all music,” he said. “My arms are used to these movements.”
Getting in the groove and really feeling as though you’re creating the music is the best connection an air guitar player can feel, Tannehill said, adding his friends joke he thinks he has to play along or the music will stop.
This perhaps is how air guitar champions are born. The Salem Film Festival recently showed Alexandra Lipsitz’s 79-minute documentary, “Air Guitar Nation,” exploring the subject of air guitar champions.
The film “chronicles the birth of the U.S. Air Guitar Championships, where legions of aspiring virtual rock stars live out their dreams and strive to become world champion on a stage where musical ability plays second fiddle to virtual virtuosity,” the festival release reads.
Stewart said her aspirations go as far as keeping guitar, whether real, air or virtual, in her life.
“It definitely has its own place in rock ‘n’ roll culture, and the fact that there are things such as competitions really speaks to that,” Tannehill said.
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Are you the next air guitar champion?
The U.S. Air Guitar Championships will be held in August in New York City and the competition is holding regional championships around the nation this summer. The closest regionals are held in San Francisco on June 29, but the championships plan on having an online competition this year as well.
To compete, pick a stage name and visit http://usairguitar.com/enter.html. Sign up for the competition and pay the $20 registration fee, then prepare a 60-second routine.