Guitar moves
Encyclopedia
Guitar showmanship involves gimmicks, jumps, or other stunts with a guitar. Some examples of guitar showmanship would become trademarks of musicians such as Jimi Hendrix
, Chuck Berry
, Pete Townshend
, Jimmy Page
, Eddie Van Halen
, Stevie Ray Vaughan
, Ace Frehley
, and Angus Young
.
Jimi Hendrix
, who spent his early career touring with R&B show bands, used some of these gimmicks in his rock sets, such as playing his guitar behind his back, in between his legs, and playing it with his teeth. Other guitarists such as Joe Satriani
and Zakk Wylde
employ these techniques and Steve Vai
has played with his tongue on several occasions. Buddy Guy
has also tossed his guitar up in the air and caught it on exactly the same chord he was previously fretting.
Stevie Ray Vaughan
would also play the guitar behind his head, and behind his back.
's guitarist Pete Townshend
commonly plays his guitar with a fast windmill motion. At a show in Tacoma, Washington in 1989, he struck the guitar with such force he drove the guitar's tremolo bar through his hand and needed hospital treatment.
Townsend also destroys his guitar, usually at the climax of a set. The first occasion was in 1964 at the Railway Tavern in Harrow, which has a low ceiling; he raised his guitar above his head and accidentally drove the headstock into the roof smashing it off. When the audience failed to respond he proceeded to smash the rest of the guitar to pieces.
Hendrix sustained hand burns and visited the hospital.
Hendrix was also known for having a very erotic stage presence. Audiences would see him slowly sweeping his hand similar to Townshend's windmill, rolling his head, and "wiping" the guitar's neck in order to create some extra fuzz.
Jimi Hendrix would also play guitar with his teeth. In 1967 at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival
he played the guitar solo from his popular song "Hey Joe" with his teeth.
is famous for playing his guitar with a violin bow, as on the live versions of the songs "Dazed and Confused" and "How Many More Times
".
concert video.
is famous for his wild onstage antics: intense jumps and running back and forth across the stage while playing his guitar. Young would clamber on to Bon Scott
's(1975–1980) or Brian Johnson
's(1980 til present) shoulders during concerts and they would make their way through the audience with smoke streaming from a satchel on his own back, while he played an extended guitar solo, usually during the song "Rocker" with Scott or during "Let There Be Rock
" with Johnson.
, the original lead guitarist and spaceman of the rock band KISS
, was best known for multiple guitar gimmicks, such as the famous smoking guitar in which he would let smoke emit through his neck pickup by use of a trap door.
, portraying lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel
of the band Spinal Tap
in the film This is Spinal Tap
, is shown playing one guitar while playing another with his foot in both a display and parody of guitar showmanship. Parodying Jimmy Page's style of showmanship, Tufnel also plays his guitar using a violin--not the bow but the instrument itself, drawing one stringed instrument across another. When performing live as Tufnel with Spinal Tap, Guest's solos were also known to include playing the guitar with his foot while juggling and playing the guitar from a distance using thrown horseshoes.
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
, Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
, Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
, Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
, Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
, Ace Frehley
Ace Frehley
Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Kiss. He took on the persona of the "Spaceman" or "Space Ace" when the band adopted costumes and theatrics...
, and Angus Young
Angus Young
Angus McKinnon Young is a Scottish-born Australian musician, and the lead guitarist, songwriter, and co-founder of the rock and roll band AC/DC. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with other members of AC/DC in 2003 and is known for his energetic performances,...
.
History
Blues musicians such as Charley Patton would use stunts such as playing the guitar behind their back, and these showbiz stunts were further developed by the touring R&B performers.Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, who spent his early career touring with R&B show bands, used some of these gimmicks in his rock sets, such as playing his guitar behind his back, in between his legs, and playing it with his teeth. Other guitarists such as Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
and Zakk Wylde
Zakk Wylde
Zachary Phillip Wylde , best known by the stage name Zakk Wylde, is an American musician, songwriter, and occasional actor who is best known as the former guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and founder of the heavy metal band Black Label Society. He was the lead guitarist and vocalist in Pride & Glory,...
employ these techniques and Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
has played with his tongue on several occasions. Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
has also tossed his guitar up in the air and caught it on exactly the same chord he was previously fretting.
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
would also play the guitar behind his head, and behind his back.
Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry's showmanship has been influential on other rock guitar players. He used a one-legged hop routine, and the "duck walk", which he first used as a child when he walked "stooping with full-bended knees, but with my back and head vertical" under a table to retrieve a ball and his family found it entertaining; he used it when "performing in New York for the first time and some journalist branded it the duck walk."Pete Townshend
The WhoThe Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
's guitarist Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
commonly plays his guitar with a fast windmill motion. At a show in Tacoma, Washington in 1989, he struck the guitar with such force he drove the guitar's tremolo bar through his hand and needed hospital treatment.
Townsend also destroys his guitar, usually at the climax of a set. The first occasion was in 1964 at the Railway Tavern in Harrow, which has a low ceiling; he raised his guitar above his head and accidentally drove the headstock into the roof smashing it off. When the audience failed to respond he proceeded to smash the rest of the guitar to pieces.
Pete: (After cracking the headstock) I was expecting everybody to go, “Wow, he’s broken his guitar, he’s broken his guitar,” but nobody did anything, which made me kind of angry in a way. And determined to get this precious event noticed by the audience. I proceeded to make a big thing of breaking the guitar. I bounced all over the stage with it and I threw the bits on the stage and I picked up my spare guitar and carried on as though I really had meant to do it.
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix would sometimes set fire to his guitar. On March 31st,1967 at performance at London AstoriaLondon Astoria
The London Astoria was a music venue, located at 157 Charing Cross Road, in London, England. It had been leased and run by Festival Republic since 2000. It was closed on 15 January 2009 and has since been demolished...
Hendrix sustained hand burns and visited the hospital.
Hendrix was also known for having a very erotic stage presence. Audiences would see him slowly sweeping his hand similar to Townshend's windmill, rolling his head, and "wiping" the guitar's neck in order to create some extra fuzz.
Jimi Hendrix would also play guitar with his teeth. In 1967 at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California...
he played the guitar solo from his popular song "Hey Joe" with his teeth.
Jimmy Page
Jimmy PageJimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
is famous for playing his guitar with a violin bow, as on the live versions of the songs "Dazed and Confused" and "How Many More Times
How Many More Times
"How Many More Times" is the ninth and final track on English rock band Led Zeppelin's 1969 debut album Led Zeppelin. The song is credited in the album liner to Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham, but is listed by ASCAP as written by all four members of the band.-Album version:At eight...
".
Yngwie Malmsteen
The heavy metal virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen has one distinct guitar stunt in which he would take the guitar while connected to its strap and fling the guitar around his shoulders once or multiple times giving it a "hula hoop" effect and bring it back to his hands. This stunt can be seen on the 2003 G3G3 (tour)
G3 is a concert tour organized by guitarist Joe Satriani featuring him alongside two other guitarists. Since its inception in 1996, G3 has toured most years and has featured many guitarists, including Steve Vai , Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, Robert Fripp,...
concert video.
Angus Young
Angus YoungAngus Young
Angus McKinnon Young is a Scottish-born Australian musician, and the lead guitarist, songwriter, and co-founder of the rock and roll band AC/DC. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with other members of AC/DC in 2003 and is known for his energetic performances,...
is famous for his wild onstage antics: intense jumps and running back and forth across the stage while playing his guitar. Young would clamber on to Bon Scott
Bon Scott
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980...
's(1975–1980) or Brian Johnson
Brian Johnson
Brian Johnson is an English singer and lyricist who has been the lead singer for the rock band AC/DC since 1980. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 along with the other members of the band....
's(1980 til present) shoulders during concerts and they would make their way through the audience with smoke streaming from a satchel on his own back, while he played an extended guitar solo, usually during the song "Rocker" with Scott or during "Let There Be Rock
Let There Be Rock (song)
"Let There Be Rock" is a song by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It is the third and title track of their album Let There Be Rock, released in March 1977, and was written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young, and Bon Scott....
" with Johnson.
Ace Frehley
Ace FrehleyAce Frehley
Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Kiss. He took on the persona of the "Spaceman" or "Space Ace" when the band adopted costumes and theatrics...
, the original lead guitarist and spaceman of the rock band KISS
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
, was best known for multiple guitar gimmicks, such as the famous smoking guitar in which he would let smoke emit through his neck pickup by use of a trap door.
Spinal Tap
Christopher GuestChristopher Guest
Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest , better known as Christopher Guest, is an American screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor and comedian. He is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in several improvisational "mockumentary" films that...
, portraying lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel
Nigel Tufnel
Nigel Tufnel was the lead guitarist of the rock band Spinal Tap featured in the 1984 mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap. He was played by actor Christopher Guest.-Character biography:...
of the band Spinal Tap
Spinal Tap (band)
Spinal Tap is a parody heavy metal band that first appeared on a failed 1979 ABC TV sketch comedy pilot called "The T.V. Show", starring Rob Reiner...
in the film This is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock musical mockumentary directed by Rob Reiner about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap...
, is shown playing one guitar while playing another with his foot in both a display and parody of guitar showmanship. Parodying Jimmy Page's style of showmanship, Tufnel also plays his guitar using a violin--not the bow but the instrument itself, drawing one stringed instrument across another. When performing live as Tufnel with Spinal Tap, Guest's solos were also known to include playing the guitar with his foot while juggling and playing the guitar from a distance using thrown horseshoes.