Townsend's Windmill

A

artCROSS

New member
My bassist just wrote a song with 4 consecutive powerchords on the beat. I think it would be perfect if I could do it Pete Townsend style. Any pointers?

Whenever I try it, my left hand looses the chord, or my right arm can't extend far enough.
 
Practice. Just don't hurt yourself.

btw, Pete got the idea when he went to a Rolling Stones concert.. The curtains opened up as Keith Richards was in the middle of doing the windmill thing with his arm to warm up. Pete saw it and thought it was cool stage move so he started doing it at his shows.

Keith later asked where he got the idea for that and Pete looked at him and said "...from you!". LOL!
 
Just watch out for the whammy bar. :)

Pete did one on a strat in concert and rammed the bar all the way through his hand.
 
boingoman said:
Just watch out for the whammy bar. :)

Pete did one on a strat in concert and rammed the bar all the way through his hand.
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Ouch!! Yeah, I heard he used to have bloody hands after quite a few shows.
 
I may be wrong here but i'm sure I heard him say on t.v that when he played windmill he just played up the strings like A5 was played E-A and the windmill bit was just for show as a follow on. He didn't actually strike the strings in the windmill but played them from a standing start so to speak. Come to think about it I think i'm alking utter shit here !!!!! Sorry !
 
smeghead said:
I may be wrong here but i'm sure I heard him say on t.v that when he played windmill he just played up the strings like A5 was played E-A and the windmill bit was just for show as a follow on. He didn't actually strike the strings in the windmill but played them from a standing start so to speak. Come to think about it I think i'm alking utter shit here !!!!! Sorry !
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How can I take you seriously? You're only a normal smeghead, while I am a Complete and Total Smeghead. :D
 
Seriously, I think smeghead might be correct. I also recall an interview where Pete says that he clamps down on the chord with his left hand and the windmill never hits the strings. Try it and you'll see that forcefully clamping an A bar chord at the 5th fret (without using your right hand) works. Add a gazillion watts and you're in business :)
 
The most important part of windmilling is to stand perfectly straight while you're playing and not tilt in any way.
 
So I'm on stage, about to attempt the windmill. Finally got the courage to just go and do it as hard as I can (a little alcohol helped along the way). I strecth my right arm to the sky and prepared to do my 4 consecutive hits when all of a sudden, my strap breaks! guitar almost goes crashing to the floor, since my right hand was no where near close enough to catch it.

I need strap locks. But hey, we still placed 2nd in the battle. Maybe the judges thought it was a stage move...
 
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