Air Guitar World Championships, Air Drumming Contest, What Next? Air Cookery Show?

Air Guitar World Championships: What is air guitar?

“Making Music…Out of Nothin’ At all…”I know I have ruined the lyrics of a perfectly romantic song by Air Supply. What prompted this outburst was a piece of news I came across just yesterday. It was about a Japanese woman winning the Air Guitar World Championships. Air guitar enthusiasts had gathered on Friday, August 24, in Oulu in north-western Finland to compete. Wait a minute! What is air guitar? According to Wikipedia, “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, solos, etc. 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.”

So you see? This is pretend-play. No one is actually playing anything. Their choice of music is playing in the background and they just have to look convincing enough that if the need arose, they might be able to strum even a real guitar. But they aren’t holding even a dummy guitar. They are just taking the right posture and moving their hands convincingly over a non-existent instrument. I am one of those who don’t think too highly of Karaoke championships either. I thought it was something that should remain confined to private parties. However, in air guitaring (I hope I can call it that), we have people looking like rock stars strut on the stage and sing along or even lip-sync to the track while playing the guitar, only, the instrument isn’t there. A damp squib, eh? To me it is. But if the crowd’s reaction is anything to go by, it seems like Gods of Rock have descended upon Earth to perform live for them.

Maybe it doesn’t work for me because I watched videos on the Net. Maybe being in the crowd would’ve worked and the enthusiasm would’ve rubbed off on me. But why would someone travel across the globe to catch these guys in action when they aren’t even playing anything? Wouldn’t it be nicer, and more productive, to spend the same kind of money on a real artist performing?

This air guitaring business really piqued my interest and I wondered if air drumming could be attempted the same way. But someone’s already beat me to it. Air drumming, like air guitaring, is when you play the drums without having a real drum set in front of you. And they also have competitions to pick the best air drummer. I can’t wait to see this concept pick up in other fields also. How about air cooking? So the contestants don’t really cook but pretend to do so. That would make partying so much easier. A reluctant cook like me would also be throwing lavish parties then because I won’t have to dish out anything; people would imagine the food is there. Also, if air cooking really served its purpose and we could get our brains to believe we had had the food that wasn’t even there, losing weight would be so much easier.

I have a confession to make. I too had a teeny little phase in life when I strummed an air guitar. I was probably 4-5 only and I would listen to a song and pretend to play the guitar…but the phase didn’t last long. I am wondering why I stopped… maybe I should’ve continued…But it’s never too late. Let me get my air guitar from where it’s been languishing at the back of my cupboard, not that it takes up any space, and pick up from where I left off, even if it’s a few decades too late.