Air Guitar

Teen Air Guitar Contest
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
2:30 pm

Please read the following so that you will be prepared on the day of the event. Failure to comply with these regulations will result in disqualification from the contest. Start practicing!
· Each participant has to play air guitar on stage in two rounds, each lasting for 1 minute.
o 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. Please bring your song either on an mp3 player/Ipod or on a CD. Write down the artist and title of the song and what track number it is, so that the DJ can easily find your selection.
Tie-breaker Round: 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.
o 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.
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. Real guitar pick are forbidden.
o Scoring: Judges will use the same 6.0 score system as in figure skating: there are several criteria, each judge must give the contestant a score from 4.0 to 6.0 on each of the criteria. One lowest and one highest score get discarded, all other scores are summed up. The contestant with maximal score wins.
o The criteria are:
o 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 doing guitar moves 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.

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