Foot tapping

[christianm77]

Tapping one's foot is easier than counting the beat i.e. '1 2 3 4', without tapping, for me.

That's an interesting quote from Wayne Shorter above. Though - I would say Wayne probably went through a period of advanced foot tapping before being able to not do it. His point I think, relates to the fact that how you tap your foot will influence your phrasing. The more frequent your foot tapping, the more driving and 'lock in' your phrasing will be. Tap on 4, you will play heavy swing, half time, more fluid bop.

Amalgamation of the beat - tapping once a bar or once every two bars opens up new rhythmic possibilities. There was a Joe Lovano vid about this?

No tapping gives you the most flexibility.

OTOH... Lee Konitz makes a point of tapping your foot and making sure that your playing is *really* synchronised to it. Good practice I think.

I've probably mentioned it above, but Barry Harris says alway pat your foot, even to 'ugly music' (modern pop etc) and do so on the 1 and 3 for jazz. He's very specific about that.

Hal Galper says the same thing.

I think Ron Carter says 2 and 4?

Excessive foot tapping? Well if the house is shaking, maybe tone it down a bit. I'm serious.

*Shrugs*

Another thing about which there is no agreement. My suggestion? Develop control.

[rpjazzguitar]

Somewhere on line there's a video of a guitar summit (Ellis and Pass maybe?). Three greats, all tapping differently.

The issue is whether working to change what feels natural is a good idea.

My suspicion is that it may help to tap 2 and 4 at a fast tempo, rather then 1 2 3 4, which can get a little manic. Probably better for your time and phrasing to tap more slowly..

Not tapping works for some, and may not be a bad idea to try.

What I don't think works is tapping erratically. I think that's an indication of unsteadiness in one's time. Whether it can be addressed by practicing steady tapping is something I don't know. I've heard it called good foot or bad foot -- and you want good foot.

[eh6794-2.0]

But, is your foot tap/toe tap/body sway, or whatever, keeping anything close to a steady tempo?

[christianm77]

But, is your foot tap/toe tap/body sway, or whatever, keeping anything close to a steady tempo?

Why not film yourself and find out?

[Thumpalumpacus]

But look at all the rhythm bound rock or blues players- they just move their body, it's different from tapping the foot. Headbanging for example? The movement comes from the excitment, the energy of the music, not a concious desicion to create a metronome for yourself. At least thats how I look at it.

That's how it is for me. I spent some years trying to develop foot-tapping until I came to the realization it was distracting me from the goal of making music. It was useful for developing limb independence but I don't gig on drums and don't really need that skill. But I found as I started gigging as a rocker that my body would get carried away with the groove and I'd better just hold on and make sure I'm in the right fretboard position.

I do sometimes foot-tap now to simpler stuff as a carryover from that, but it's thoughtless and stops when thinking starts.