World Guitar : Guitar Moves

You could be the best guitar player, but also the most boring if you don't know how to please the audience. One of the most boring things ever is to watch a guitar player stand straight up and stare at their fretboard the whole time. That's where this wikiHow article comes in. Enjoy!

Steps

1.The Duck Walk. Hold the guitar to your side, bend over, and kick your right leg forward. Next, scoot your left foot forward and return the right foot to it's original position. do this as many (at least 5) times as you like across the stage, and have fun. BUT...don't fall or stop moving, you WILL look like an idiot. Be careful though; this is a good 30 years out of style, so you still might look like an idiot.
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2.The stomp and stagger. Step forward with one foot, then slide it back to its original position. Then do this with the opposite foot. Repeat however many times needed. If you are successful, it should look something like the running man!

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3.Jumping. This is a very primitive move, but one of the most used and most entertaining. Simply jump in the air and tuck your knees in, then land. An alternate way is to jump in the air and separate your legs so it looks like you did a kick. Make sure your guitar is out of the way when you do this, or you'll bang your knees up and it will hurt.

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4.The guitar swing. This is where you throw your guitar (make sure you have a strap lock!) over your fretting hand shoulder and then it will swing around your back and come back to you underneath your armpit. For more information, see the link below.

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5.Dramatic picking. Make your picking very dramatic. Strum really hard and look angry at the guitar. Bend your elbow and sort of "throw" your picking hand at the strings. Kurt Cobain held his picking hand in place and then moved the guitar neck up and down to strum. Try making up your own "signature" picking styles. A great way for a beginner to show their style.

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6.Headbanging. Look at the floor, and then rotate your head in a circular motion. Works great if you have long hair. This can hurt your neck if you do it too long, though. Also try bobbing your head up and down. Or side to side like you're saying no. This might affect your playing for the first time and you will find it difficult to do multiple tasks at once.
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7.Stance. Your playing stance is very important. Most of the time you want your legs to be spread out. A good punk rock stance is to spread out your legs, slightly bend your knees, rest your guitar on your thigh, lean back, and then attack your strings with your pick!
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8.Angus Young "The Spasm". Also called 'the crazy idiot'. Lay on the ground on your side (with your guitar, duh!) and use your legs to go in circles. Make sure there is enough room and people aren't around you. A wireless guitar is recommended for this.

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9.Guitar Swing or Cinderella Swing. This one is extremely dangerous, it is just on here for looks. Take off your guitar, and throw it in the air so it does a flip or two, and then catch it. Put it back on and then start playing again.

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10.Star Power! Turn your guitar so the headstock is pointing towards the ceiling, and then play.
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11.Windmill! Made famous by The Who, just swing your arm in a circle and strum the guitar at every revolution (warning: watch the whammy bar).

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12.Make eye contact with your audience.
This needs no explanation.

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13.Power Slide. Made famous by The Who, done more recently by Tenacious D. Get a running start, and then fall onto your knees. If done correctly, you'll slide about 4 feet across the floor.

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14.Twirly gig Extremely dangerous.Hold your guitar by the strings and spin around.Be sure you have a strap on,and a lot of room.
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15.Guitar Spin Take your strap off and hold the guitar only by its neck, grab the bottom of the body and spin it around with the neck as the axis. The grip tighter to stop and put your strap back on.
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16.Pick Throw Do a pick slide (slide the pick down the guitar neck) and do it with force, then once you get to the 1st fret, release and launch the pick. This may take some practice but its great, you can toss your pick to the audience or even a second player.
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17.Shake Whammy If your guitar doesn't have a whammy bar you can play a chord and shake it hard and it whammies!

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18.Crabcore. This is when you crouch down like a crab and head bang at the same time. Lots of metal bands do this at the breakdown part of their song in their music videos.

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Tips

Try to move about more, these moves won't look good if you are standing still and occasionally doing one of these moves. Buy a long lead.

IMPORTANT: Try to learn the song to the point that you can play every single note without even thinking, you really have to know what your doing on guitar before trying any of these moves.

Practice the moves so you get them down. There is nothing worse than trying to look cool and then messing up one of these at a gig.

Watch more live performances, see how the pros do it!

Not only practice the moves, but practice guitar. If you aren't 100% comfortable with the song(s) you're playing and you do one of these moves, you can ruin them, and chances are your band will not be so happy.

Warnings

Some of these moves may cause injury. Make sure you know what you are doing before you do them. The guitar players you see do this have lots of experience. Don't do something you will regret!