Air Guitar

Red Scare took me up on my "Rex Saxi, Your Way" blogging challenge; here's my post:

Like all guys who love music but can't really play, I love the air guitar. Even though I can't play, I consider myself pretty musical (I was in the church choir in Catholic grammar school) and I can still carry a tune and identify chord changes when I listen to music.

My parents, unlike the parents of most of my friends, didn't believe in forcing musical lessons on us. While my friend Ivan took piano listens (which he hated), I spent the time outside.

Even so, whenever I listen to music, I try to identify the different parts as I listen.

My favorite air instrument to play is actually the drums--I like Ringo's fills on I Feel Fine and A Day in the Life. EVERY time I hear Our Lips Are Sealed by The Go-Go's, I MUST do the little drum roll between 1:48 and 1:50. Always.

Because I like the backbeat so much, when I DO play air guitar, it's usually the bass. The bass line is my favorite part of a song; I love the way that a good bassist will weave in and out of the drumming. I even taught myself the blues scale 15 years ago on a real bass, but quit when my fingers started getting raw and sore!

For me the coolest songs to play bass to are 1966-era Beatles (the guitar songs on Revolver, Paperback Writer, Rain, etc.), and any song from any era with a booming and heavy bass line.

But I like the bass because bassists are SO cool! Think of how they present themselves to the world--Bill Wyman, John Paul Jones--as calm as calm could be while managing the chaos around them. (OK, OK, Paul McCartney is an exception, but he was a Beatle and had a lot to smile about for goodness sake!). My technique?? I play my air bass (a Hofner, of course), with the first two fingers of my right hand pointing downwards (I'm right-handed), in a moderately funky style while fingering the fretboard with my left hand. I RARELY play chords when I play my air bass.

When I hear a song by The Ramones, it's rhythm guitar, and it's all about the chords and the changes, and strumming as hard and as fast as I can. For me the hardest (and most gratifying) songs to play air guitar to are Led Zeppelin's; Jimmy Page plays both lead and rhythm and he's hard to keep up with. My favorite song to play is Bring It On Home. When I play lead, I pick each note with the thumb and first finger of my right hand, and fret with my left.

As for other kinds of music, I have to admit I can't really play.

Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. When I was in school, I transcribed Rock Box (by Run-D.M.C. (rest in peace, Jam Master J!), and lip-synched to it in a video I created. There is a scratch solo in the middle of the song which I did, so I guess I know how to be an air rap DJ.

A LOT more to learn...