Air Guitar Classics

Feel you were born to be a rock god, but don't quite have the chops? Let Air Guitar Basics give you the tools you need to at least look the part. Acting out the dark and crunchy progression from Deep Purple's "Smoke On the Water" is really just one small step away from actually playing those famous anyone-can-do-it chords. Boston's master shredder Tom Scholz may have taught himself to play guitar before launching the record-breaking "More Than a Feeling," but with air guitar you can skip that step and still let loose on his landmark solo.

So many air-guitar anthems, so many aesthetic choices. Can't decide between philosophical introspection and plain old rock pyrotechnics? "Baba O'Riley," the Who's teenage-wasteland ode to both minimalist composer Terry Riley and Indian guru Meher Baba offers both. Feeling like a multi-instrumentalist? Blast Deep Purple's "Highway Star" and you can take on the solos for both air guitar and air keyboard. Go deep into blues virtuosity on Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Pride and Joy" or get burly on Motörhead's "Ace of Spades."

Did you know that Queen's Brian May (and his dad) built his own "Red Special" guitar, using, among other things, knitting needles and motorbike springs — and that May gets his one-of-a-kind sound, in part, by playing with a sixpence instead of a pick? Or how about the fact that, at a formidable 4:59, Rush's prog-rock air-guitar standard, "Spirit of Radio," was meant to be a shorter, more radio-friendly release? There, Deep Cuts air guitar school is now officially out for the day — time to go shred!

It is a proud tradition, one carried out in bedrooms, rec rooms, parking lots, and pool halls all across our fair country, and beyond. We're speaking, of course, of air guitar, that precision art of flying fingers, flailing arms, and pursing lips that turn an ordinary citizen into a guitar hero of unbound rock prowess. It's true, however, that too often, the prime air guitar moment is fleeting, a quick blitz from the radio or the jukebox and it's gone, taking your rock immortality with it. We here at iTunes want to make your glory last, with entire playlists of tunes by which to spotlight your expertise. Go forth, we say, and rawk.