(Air) Guitar Hero, too

Someone once sent me a link to an eBay auction for an air guitar, and I found it hilarious. I mean, you've got to be really dumb to believe you have to pay actual money for something you pretend to play with your hands. You know what they say, there's a sucker born every minute.

Or so it seemed.

Today I was walking around the local shopping mall (while I really should have been studying for the JLPT - I'm so screwed), and I came across an actual air guitar in a shop that sells interior accessories and wacky toys. At first I thought it was some kind of gag, but on closer inspection (and a go at the display model), it really did work! What clinched it for me though was that it included "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet (Go Aussie!) as one of the preset songs. So, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm now the proud owner of one brand spanking new high tech air guitar:

The Japanese take the concept of compact living seriously. O.o

Made by Takara Tomy (did the two companies merge or something?), the Air Guitar Pro features one touch chords (for unco people like me) and sub buttons for sharps, flats and such. It also has jacks so you can hook it up to a music player to practice your own songs or a set of external speakers so you can show the world your l33t guitar skillz. The thing works via an infra red beam on the bottom, so that the right notes sound from the speaker on the back when you strum the air where the guitar strings would be. Neat, huh?

After a few plonks, I'd have to say it's a whole lot of fun, especially because I can't help but ham it up and make mad guitar player faces just for the heck of it. It can get frustrating though, because the IR beam doesn't actually reach all that far (maybe about a foot) and accidentally straying into its path can cause the Air Guitar to play extra notes by mistake. Following the enclosed instructions helps a lot, but of course I realized that only after I took a second look at the packaging and actually found them. :/ 

Thanks to the series of t00bs known as the Internets, I've been practicing the chords to a few songs for the past couple of hours. My personal favourites are "Closing Time" by Semisonic, "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak, as well as Christmas classics like "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", "Deck the Halls" and "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The Air Guitar doesn't play some of the more complicated chords like Asus, Fmaj etc, so there's a limit to what songs the thing can handle. Even so, it's nice to be able to play and sing at the same time, or as best as I can given I still have laryngitis (damn!).

I reckon if I went out on the street back in Australia I'd be able to make a few bucks with this, even though I suck at playing. Might be good for a few laughs, eh?