The strangest serious competition in music

Air guitar competitions sit somewhere between rock concert, theater, and Olympic-level commitment to nonsense. Contestants shred solos that only they can see, leap across the stage like possessed guitar heroes, and somehow convince the audience that the instrument in their hands is real.

It’s ridiculous.

It’s brilliant.

And it’s taken very seriously.

Performers are judged on:

• Technical merit (yes, imaginary guitars have technique)

• Stage presence

• Originality

• And the mysterious quality known as “airness.”

If you can make the audience believe the guitar exists, you’re halfway to victory.

The philosophy behind the madness

What looks like a joke actually carries a deeper idea.

Air guitar is built around a simple cultural principle that emerged from Finland, home of the Air Guitar World Championships in Oulu:

“Make Air, Not War.”

If everyone played air guitar, nobody could hold a weapon. (Well, one can, but…)

It sounds playful, but it’s also a surprisingly elegant vision of culture: music without barriers.

No instruments to buy.
No lessons required.
No gatekeepers.

Just participation.

Why this matters to World Music School

For the World Music School, this philosophy feels familiar.

Our work has always been about breaking the invisible barriers around music, the idea that only the trained, the talented, or the formally educated deserve to participate.

Air guitar proves the opposite.

Music can begin with nothing but:

• rhythm

• imagination

• and the courage to perform.

Sometimes that’s enough to bring a room together.

Sometimes it’s enough to start a movement.

When the guitar disappears

Watching a room full of people cheer for an instrument that doesn’t exist is a strange experience.

But it also reveals something fundamental:

The instrument was never the most important part.

The performance was.

And if that’s true, then perhaps the most democratic instrument in the world has been in our hands all along.

Even if we can’t see it.

Pedro Aibéo
San Francisco, 2025

Why Playful Music Exercises for Youth Professionals insists that music belongs to everyone

There is a polite but damaging assumption embedded deep in music education: that music is primarily for those who show aptitude early, submit to training quietly, and learn to perform without asking too many questions. The rest may listen, applaud, and stay out of the way.

Playful Music Exercises for Youth Professionals was written in direct opposition to that assumption.

Co-authored within a European Erasmus+ collaboration and contributed to by the World Music School, the book does not attempt to simplify music. Instead, it dismantles a more entrenched idea, that music education must sort people into the musical and the non-musical.

This is not a manual for producing virtuosos. It is a defence of participation.

Music without the velvet rope

Open the book and you will not encounter reverence for authority, nor exercises designed to reward prior training. What you find instead are practical, immediately usable activities built around voice, rhythm, movement, attention, and listening, the raw materials of human musicality.

The exercises are intentionally playful. That playfulness is not a weakness; it is a strategy. By avoiding notation anxiety, performance pressure, and the cult of correctness, the material allows groups to enter music together, at once, without permission.

The emphasis is unapologetically collective. Music happens in groups. It always has.

Collective authorship as method

It matters that Playful Music Exercises for Youth Professionals was not written by a single authority or institution.

The book emerged from collaboration between educators, musicians, and youth professionals working across different countries, contexts, and traditions. World Music School participated as a co-author, contributing experience from participatory workshops, mixed-ability groups, and community-based music practices.

This distributed authorship is not a footnote. It is the method made visible.

Music education does not improve through tighter control, narrower definitions of excellence, or increasing professional distance between teachers and participants. It improves when practice is shared, tested, argued over, and refined collectively.

This book and the system

Books like Playful Music Exercises for Youth Professionals rarely sit comfortably at the center of formal music institutions. They raise inconvenient implications.

They suggest that musical ability is not fixed.
That learning can happen without hierarchy.
That joy and rigor are not opposites.
And that exclusion is not an unfortunate side effect, but often a design choice.

For World Music School, contributing to this book was never about producing another pedagogical output. It was about articulating, calmly but firmly — a position:

Music is not a luxury skill. It is a social capacity.

A book that refuses to behave

The book continues to inform our work today, not as a completed project, but as a persistent counterargument to narrow thinking about education, culture, and participation.

Whenever music education becomes overly competitive, overly sanitized, or overly concerned with selection rather than inclusion, Playful Music Exercises for Youth Professionals asks the same uncomfortable question:

Who is music really for?

The answer, inconveniently, remains: everyone.

Pedro Aibeo
Doha, 09.02.2026

On Wednesday, August 20, 2025, the Air Guitar World Championships kicked off with Airientation, hosted for the second time at the World Music School AIR in Oulu. With over 100 participants, both local and international, the day once again proved how air guitar brings together community, creativity, and cultural exchange.

The program opened with the Airlympics, a playful tournament featuring Finnish-style party sports like boot tossing and hobby-horse riding. This year’s hobby-horse champion was Airguityler from New Zealand, while the boot toss winner Nordic Thunder added a surprise twist by inviting SUDO-Chan from Japan to throw an old Nokia phone in a bonus round. SUDO-Chan went on to take second place in the World Championships.

One of the highlights of the day was a mass synchronized air guitar windmill attempt to “Rock Lobster,” as dozens of participants moved together in chaotic harmony. Inside the school, visitors explored early plans for the upcoming Air Guitar Museum and joined a peace flag workshop, reflecting the ongoing mission to Make Air Not War.

As night fell, the school hosted a community dinner prepared by Lloyd “Stonehenge” Weema, creating a cosy space for conversation, song, and shared meals. After dinner, guests gathered around the campfire, listened to a live performance by Luna Vesania, and relaxed in a tent sauna constructed by Kesän Sauna — a perfect way to unwind in true Finnish style.

The evening closed with an exclusive preview screening of the documentary “Make Air Not War,” capturing the global air guitar movement’s deeper meaning of peace, expression, and connection.

A special thank you to Kesän Sauna for providing the temporary sauna at our welcome event for all the air guitarists competing in the Air Guitar World Championships – Ilmakitaransoiton MM-kisat.
Thanks for helping us welcome individuals from around the world and giving them the opportunity to experience a beloved Finnish cultural tradition.
Kiitos!

Airientation 2025 reaffirmed a growing tradition rooted in international friendship, artistic freedom, and shared joy. The World Music School AIR is proud to carry this tradition forward in Oulu, building a home for invisible instruments and real community.

Pedro Aibéo
29.08.2025

We are thrilled to announce the 2025 podcast series OpenMic, recorded live from the Helsinki Open Waves!

 Listen to the voices, stories, and performances of talented musicians and enthusiasts from diverse backgrounds, all coming together to celebrate the universal language of music.

 The Dates: 

26.02 at 16:00
26.03 at 17:00
30.04 at 16:00
28.05 at 16:00
25.06 at 16:00

27.08 at 16:00
24.09 at 16:00
29.10 at 16:00
26.11 at 16:00

 What to Expect:

Live performances by local and international artists.

Engaging interviews and stories that explore the journeys of musicians.

Live at: https://www.helsinkiopenwaves.com/

We have live today at 16:00 (EET), at our Open Mic show at the Helsinki Open Waves-HOW in Kulttuurikeskus Caisa, the French-Tunisien musician, Sami Karkar

Sami has been studying since 2022 at the Global Music department of Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts, Helsinki.

Also a trained scientist from his first life, Sami has previously graduated with a PhD in music acoustics from Aix-Marseille University (France), and worked several years as an academic researcher.

The World Music School was invited by the City of Helsinki to contribute to the program of Revitalizing Downtown – summer streets and city center (Kadut Elävät). We brought on the 26.6 a series of our “Folk Dances with Live Music” events to the Finnish National Museum

We taught there how to dance some folk dances of the world. The event counted with three groups of musicians and dance teachers that played during the 2022 Juhannus celebrations. The music was acoustic, requiring no electricity.

– Ivory Coast (Africa)
– Yiddish (Europe)
– Nicaragua (America)

We believe these events are a great way to strengthen the connectedness among the different members of the participating diasporas. Enhancing the bonds between people of Helsinki is our way to participate in the city’s community. Indeed through Music and Dance people are sharing beyond simple words, they convey their own enthusiasm and energy towards each other.

The venue was held at the Finnish National Museum backyard between 13-16.

https://www.facebook.com/events/723823568671370/

Program:

13.00 – Welcoming words by Pedro Aibéo, Chairman of the World Music School

13.05 – Ivory Coast Folk Dances with Live Music (Lassina Ouattara)

14:00 – Yiddish Folk Dances with Live Music (Helsinki Klezmer Kapelye)

15:00 – Nicaraguan Folk Dances with Live Music (José Robelo and Mariano Vega) 

All photos and videos by Pedro Aibéo 2022