Tyler Brailey has organised the Manawatū Air Guitar Championship on May 18. Guitar picks are optional. Photo / Judith Lacy
Tyler Brailey has organised the Manawatū Air Guitar Championship on May 18. Guitar picks are optional. Photo / Judith Lacy
Tyler Brailey has declared Palmerston North the air guitar capital of New Zealand.
So much so that he has organised the Manawatū Air Guitar Championship on May 18 at the Globe Theatre.
No one else is running a championship in NZ so it is an unoccupied space and Palmy should go for it, Brailey said.
Air guitarists play an imaginary guitar miming to rock, metal or guitar-based music. It is more about performance than music with stage presence important.
Performers don’t need to know how to play a guitar, Brailey said, but they should strum in time with the music, be energetic and have a big personality.
A good air guitarist will be taken over by the song as they channel their inner rock star.
To use a culinary analogy, while the musician who first performed the song is like a chef, an air guitarist is like a waiter delivering a performance with their own flourish.
Brailey, 32, loved playing air guitar at Hillmorton High School in Christchurch and is keen to introduce a new generation to the invisible axe.
He has organised an afternoon competition for 10 to 17-year-olds with the top three air guitarists receiving a Wonderboom speaker.
Contestants 18 and older will battle it out for $500 at an R18 evening event.
The competition is for seasoned shredders and first-time strummers. It is free to enter and to attend the competition.
Brailey has chatted to the organisers of the Air Guitar World Championships and hopes one day NZ will send someone to the worlds. This year’s world championship will be held in Finland in August. The 2023 champion is Nanami “Seven Seas” Nagura from Japan.
Brailey has received a lot of help in putting on the championship and received $1460 from Creative Communities.
He will MC the event and perform. He hopes to build the air guitar scene in Palmy.
Tyler Brailey is keen to introduce a new generation to the invisible axe. Photo / Judith Lacy
A link to the entry form and rules is on the Globe Theatre’s website.
Judith Lacy has been the editor of the Manawatū Guardian since December 2020. She graduated from journalism school in 2001 and this is her second role editing a community paper.
