Hands Up in the Air

Alexander Gott is a lawyer, but his unruly hair and faded eye shadow tell a different story. As does his nickname, Devil Seducer.

He may wear suits to work every day, but every night this week he will be indulging his passion in heavy metal. He will stand in front of a mirror with no guitar in hand and strum his fingers to DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flames," to practice for Russia's first air-guitar championship held at FM-Club in Moscow, next Friday.

The art of playing air guitar has long been celebrated in other parts of the world. A festival and competition is held yearly in Oulu, Finland, where Japanese air guitarist Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke has been the winner two years in a row. On Aug. 1, Russia is holding its own leg of the Air Guitar World Championships, and the winner out of 15 contestants will go to Finland to take part in the international competition.

"I wouldn't be in this competition if I didn't think there was a chance I could win," said Gott, confidently. "Air guitar is not something that you do if you take yourself seriously. It's all supposed to be quite fun, so I am not nervous."

Gott started playing air guitar when he was 17 at his first heavy metal concert. "It's like head-banging, your body impulsively does it when you hear metal music, your hands just move."

The peculiar art of air guitar has been around since the 1970s. One of its first incarnations was at Iron Maiden concerts where the audience began to emulate those on stage without holding an actual instrument. In the United States, air-guitar competitions are held regularly with regional finalists and thousands of enthusiasts. The last competition in Brooklyn resulted in contestant Betty B. Goode losing a toe after an over-enthusiastic air-guitar routine.

A blog called US Air Guitar described the moment: "She was declared the winner and promptly whisked away to the emergency room. Which just goes to show ... In air guitar, sometimes when you win, you actually ... are insane."

Gott has never taken part in a competition, but he and his friends have played air guitar in front of each other before. "At one outdoor concert, we brought inflatable guitars, and we were so enthusiastic that we broke them," he said.

Now Gott also takes guitar lessons but finds playing real guitar limiting. "With air guitar, you can do anything. You can make your fingers move in a way that wouldn't make a proper sound on a real instrument. But real guitar is obviously much harder, especially when I am tired after work."

Entrants for the Russian leg of the competition are only allowed one song. The organizers, The Creative Factory, said they will be judged by a panel of well-known judges whose names they cannot cannot reveal at this point.

Another contestant, Alexander Tardatyan has chosen "One" by Metallica. Tardatyan, who works in sales, met for an interview at a central Moscow bar dressed in a heavy metal T-shirt and jeans. Now 32, he has been practicing air guitar for 20 years.

"I started when I first heard a metal song on the radio. I used a broom, but my parents found this irritating, they took away the broom, so I ended up just using my fingers," Tardatyan said.

Unlike Gott, he has never been inspired to play a real instrument. "Playing a guitar requires talent, time and hard work," said Tardatyan. "No one who has stood behind and played a real instrument would have a proper interest in air guitar."

For more information see www.airguitar.ru