drumming and clapping - i've been told it's really loud

round our house we were listening to Otis Reading the other day and suddenly entire air brass section appeared.
David I think you need to let go and get your O2 fender out of it's invisible case. Your kids etc won't think any worse of you(if you know what I mean) and who cares what some grinning stranger in corsa thinks of you if you've got that bit in baba O'reily.

I'm the first one home, so turning up The Clash at full volume gets those air guitar moves going on; it's all Townsend, Strummer, Weller and Keef moves though, none of that air lead guitar nonsense, strictly rhythm!

What's more worrying is my recent tendency to perform (badly) complicated Northern Soul dances in the kitchen while I'm cooking. That makes my wife laugh. A lot.

I'm 40 tomorrow. Should I be stopping these things?

I still do it! (only in short bursts though, but that's as ever it was)
And dance like a tit in the kitchen whilst cooking the tea.
And sing as loud as I can. I'm a joy to live with!
The day I stop embarrassing my kids will be a sad day indeed.

... for the younger generation and called it "Guitar Hero"!

you turn into this guy...

Will sing very badly in car, on own. Often will pretend I'm on the phone (hands free) if member of fairer sex spots me singing. Sad.

Townsend windmills and other extravagant displays of air guitar have become rather rare in this household. These days I prefer the more studied approach of seated air guitar noodling, in the Steve Hackett/Robert Fripp mould.

Who can resist twiddling those fingers for some ..

Air Banjo - Foggy Mountain Breakdown
Air piccolo trumpet - Penny Lane

And Air barrel-house hands for any honky tonk piano playing

Few people should be allowed anywhere near a bloody saxaphone. One of them is Junior Walker . . .

for air guitar round here. I own twenty of the real ones, and play daily. You are, after all, only middle-aged once....

A certain amount of desk-top drumming does take place from time to time. I suspect the neighbours prefer that to my getting a proper kit.

Having moved on from the upper quarter of the steering wheel, I can now syncopate a cool groove using left fingers (plasticy panel over steering column), right palm (right knee), left foot (transmission tunnel) and right elbow (door panel). I also cover all vocal parts and will affect a right-handed hybrid picking technique should the going get particuarly twangsome. Some years back I taught myself harmonica while commuting across the M62 but was eventually encouraged to desist by West Yorks Constabulary. They have no sense of fun.

to the likes of stone roses etc. complete with maracca shaking and splayed feet manc scally walk.

that takes the most of my talent, especially as I never use a plectrum. Mastering stand up air bass is harder, but a current challenge.

Reading this has made me realise I don't do it anymore. I can't remember when or why I stopped.

Possibly because I'm in my early 40's, but possibly becasue I don't listen to what I used to 'air it' to as much.

I was 13-14 when I started and still remember my favourite track to pose to was 'Softer Ride' from Hello by the Quo (when they were good). I was doing Technical Drawing at school at the time and found my T-square invaluable as a faux Telecaster. I did the huge Francis Rossi barre chords impeccably. Big stretch, little finger dotting down right on the beat.

Oh, and 'You Fool No One' from Made In Europe by Deep Purple.

God, I may have to leave work early and have a go!

T-square was a fantastic air guitar prop. I'd forgotten. Much better than a tennis racquet.

Air guitar is pretty tragic after the age of 30 or so. However, I enjoy taking a break from cooking to drum on my flabby thighs with wooden spoons.

...but I do play air theremin.

I thang yew.

Essential for Stevie Wonder records

it says that every post must have an Alan Partridge you tube clip to back up some point or other. Air bass anyone?

can I nominate the multi-instrumental talents of John Candy, demonstrated in 'Trains, Planes and Automobiles'?

... but very furtively as I find myself pretending to be a grown up seeing as I now cohabit as opposed to flatshare.

However I was nearly caught the other day playing air accordian to Bobby's Song by The Aliens. That was a moment that almost demolished what tiny traces of enigma I still possess.

You can see me perform 'air guitar' (and much more besides) on this clip as I channel the spirit of Dave Brock and Lemmy:

I have never had the urge to air plank spank but I do regularly mime along with the vocals, particularly if it's The Small Faces. I then deepen the experience further by leaping around the kitchen during the guitar solo or other instrumental moments only to return to 'the mike' when the vocal comes back in.

in discovering me captured for posterity on YouTube in someone's bootleg video taken at a recent Soundtrack of Our Lives gig in Sweden.

I am indeed rocking out the riffs on an imaginary Gibson SG with the band...it is quite shameful!

I would post the link for your amusement but I do have some dignity left, when sober anyway.

...and when the mind wanders (often) I am absolutely convinced that if I devised some kind of syn drum system activated by finger tip buttons on the steering wheel I would make my fortune. There would of course be high hat, cymbal and rim shot available and a button on the floor for the bass drum. Anyone out there with an electrical engineering bent who wants to go into partnership?

And so much more portable than the air guitar.

playing air guitar?
The day I die, boy.

but I do find myself hitting dull metallic objects with chopsticks to mimic Stewart Copeland's 'rimshots' on Police records.

I attend about 4-6 "do's" each year that give me the opportunity to dance, and every time I will air guitar, to whatever is playing. Not in a RAAAWWWWK way, but it's what I have always done and always will.

I hung up my Air Guitar in my late 20s. I couldn’t use it anymore, although tellingly I didn’t get rid of it. I’m like Clint Eastwood’s retired gunfighter in Unforgiven: Overshadowing the mundane domesticity of my everyday life is the prospect that Three Days by Jane’s Addiction, or The Dream Syndicate’s cover of See That My Grave Is Kept Clean might come galloping over the horizon, leaving me no choice other than to ride out and meet them halfway.

I always found real guitars too solid and restricting and so never learned the arcane sign language that one uses to make the shape of the chords. When I played my Air Guitar it was with all my fingers and thumbs waggling at once, as if my hands were a pair of insects, each missing a single leg, rolling around helplessly on their backs unable to right themselves. Trained musicians may have been scornful of my technique but I bet they secretly admired my passion.

After I turned 30 I put my debauched Rock and Roll lifestyle behind me and took up the Air Pen. I still spend the odd private moment posed in front of the bathroom mirror clutching a copy of Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths in one hand, while furiously scribbling into empty space with the other; an imitation of how I imagine the great Argentine storyteller wrote Tlön, Uqbar, Orbus Tertius and The Library of Babel.

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/guitar-hero-air-guitar-rocker/index.html

I've actually found that I have to contiously stop myself doing air guitar these days. I simply cannot dance/move to music without strumming my indie jangles, hammering flea like bass or kirk hammet style axe weilding solos.

Please help

All that 'up the neck' stuff looks a bit unsightly at my age, especially if it's accompanied by inappropriate gurning. Air riffing is still acceptable.

Does anyone else play air drums when on the bog? It keeps you regular.Feet slapping on the tiles, arms on the knees, and not much cymbal work expect the occassional accent on the splash.