Admittedly yes, I do occasionally break out into an embarrassing bout of air guitar. I resisted the urge to do so on the train the other day listening to ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl?’ on my iPod. I didn’t want to wake up the drunk man.

So I was pleased to hear that the Air Guitar World Championships were held yesterday in Oulu, in Finland. Yes, there’s a championship. It gives that girl doing a PhD in it something to do.

The participant has to go through two rounds – both lasting a minute – where for one stage they are playing music to a song they’ve chosen and in whatever fashion they like. The second round is a pre-selected song for them in which they have to improvise their performance to.

They are marked out of 6 under three categories, which are then totaled and the participant given their final score. The categories are:

• Technical Merit - How much their air guitar playing actually looks like an actual guitar being played. They’re watching to make sure your strumming, movements and even finger positions on chords are in the right place.
• Stage Presence - Playing to the crowd. You’ve got no stage fright and the charisma of a real rock star if you get 6 here.
• Airness – How you make the performance your own. ie, not merely simulating an actual guitar. Things like playing with your teeth or throwing your guitar in the air and catching it are pluses.

They are often judged by rock gods themselves, so you don’t get a rough ride. You get the real deal.

Ochi “Dainoji” Yosuke from Japan has won it the past two years but this year didn’t even feature in the top three as Craig “Hot Lixx Hulahan” Billmeier from the USA steals top spot. He wins not only wins… somewhat fame and fortune, but also a hand-made ‘Flying Finn’ electric guitar. Go him.

The highest ranking Brit was Daniel “Midnight Moses” Robertson with a score of 33.4 – Just 0.9 off of the winner, but finished joint 8th with an Aussie. Shame.

Trackback URL - Share on Plurk

Tags: Ian, iPod, place, Tran, YouTube