Guitar showmanship

Guitar showmanship involves gimmicks, jumps, or other stunts with a guitar. Some examples of guitar showmanship would become trademarks of musicians such as Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ace Frehley, and Angus Young.

Blues musicians such as Charley Patton would use stunts such as playing the guitar behind their back, and these showbiz stunts were further developed by the touring R&B performers.

Jimi Hendrix, who spent his early career touring with R&B show bands, used some of these gimmicks in his rock sets, such as playing his guitar behind his back, in between his legs, and playing it with his teeth. Other guitarists such as Joe Satriani and Zakk Wylde employ these techniques and Steve Vai has played with his tongue on several occasions. Buddy Guy has also tossed his guitar up in the air and caught it on exactly the same chord he was previously fretting. Stevie Ray Vaughan would also play the guitar behind his head, and behind his back.

Chuck Berry's showmanship has been influential on other rock guitar players. He used a one-legged hop routine, and the "duckwalk", which he first used as a child when he walked "stooping with full-bended knees, but with my back and head vertical" under a table to retrieve a ball and his family found it entertaining; he used it when "performing in New York for the first time and some journalist branded it the duck walk.".

The Who's lead guitarist and main songwriter Pete Townshend commonly plays his guitar with a fast windmill motion, inspired by watching Keith Richards's warm-up exercise. At a show in Tacoma, Washington in 1989, he was windmilling so aggressively that he accidentally pierced his hand with the guitar's whammy bar and needed hospital treatment.

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