Foot tapping?

[Marley's Ghost]

I'm working with a BL on learning some difficult pieces. He insists that I need to foot tap and every other bass player he has worked with has used this technique.

I did a search here and could find very little.

 

[jdjk7]

I've never seriously used foot tapping as a time keeping mechanism, and I can't say I personally know a bass player who does this. I've studied the techniques of some pretty high level jazz upright bassists in my local academic community and this is not a common theme. Foot tapping can probably be an element of time keeping technique if it is something that you learned or were instructed in, but it's not nearly the only way to do this and it's definitely not a requirement. Trying to force yourself to do it and go against the way you natively learned to keep time probably wouldn't yield awesome results.

I suspect that his opinion that all bass players must do this is fueled primarily by a particular colloquial/aesthetic image in his head, and by the fact that he himself is presumably not a bass player. If I were gonna take the stones out of him over it, I would ask him to refer you to such foot-tapping bass players so that you could learn the technique yourself. $20 says he can't give you a name of one.

 

[Gopherbassist]

My hands have better time than my feet. Tapping my foot would not help me play at all.

 

[Wasnex]

I'm working with a BL on learning some difficult pieces. He insists that I need to foot tap and every other bass player he has worked with has used this technique.

I did a search here and could find very little.

It's a common belief (wide spread). For those that believe it, it must be true .

I find it hard to resist clacking my teeth to the beat when I am working on fast swing tunes...but I consider that a problem.

Do you think these guys believe?

 

[KohanMike]

It comes naturally to me since playing rhythm guitar for almost 50 years. I also sit when I play because of nerve damage to my neck spinal cord, which makes tapping my foot that much more conducive. I would certainly suggest it while learning new material.

 

[DigitalMan]

Body movement of some kind can greatly improve the overall feel of the bass within music. It doesn't have to be (and probably shouldn't be) just metronomic foot tapping. Maybe he's politely trying to tell you something?

 

[zontar]

I find myself tapping subconsciously
Although sometimes I need to put more weight 8n the other leg, so I switch which foot taps, and if I tap on a cable it messes me up.
But for the most part I tap, at least subconsciously
It helps.

When I am listening to music but not playing I often find myself tapping a foot, or both is sitting.
And also tapping with my hands- often with each ahnd and foot tha5 is tapping doing different note values.

 

[bass12]

I’ve heard Mark King suggest foot tapping on multiple occasions. I don’t know if you place any store by what Mr King has to say, but I’ve found that tapping my foot can be very helpful when it comes to maintaining a steady pulse. Bassists’ hands tend to be pretty busy, moving around and often playing syncopated lines. Having another part of your body (it doesn’t have to be your foot) maintaining a regular beat can act as an effective reference point. Drummers do this all the time (maintaining a steady, subdivided pulse on at least one part of the kit). Anyway, why not give foot tapping a try - you might be surprised by the results.

 

[bass12]

It's a common belief (wide spread). For those that believe it, it must be true .

I find it hard to resist clacking my teeth to the beat when I am working on fast swing tunes...but I consider that a problem.

Do you think these guys believe?

Just flipping through the video I can see both Marcus and Victor tapping their feet at times. With Marcus if it’s not his foot it’s his upper body rocking to the pulse. Who knows if they are doing this consciously or not - but I have no doubt that it helps with the feel of the music.

 

[ryco]

I use heal tapping , and rockin' and swayin', but yah - it's not for everybody. Do you 𝄢

 

[dreamadream99]

I started school band in sixth grade, playing trombone. The band director/conductor dictated the tempo, but every person in the band tapped their foot. This continued through middle school and high school. Our high school band had 350 kids. Now the band hole was carpeted, so you didn’t notice it much in there, but first concert on a wooden stage, it sounded like a bass metronome, at about 100 dB. I never did it to force my own tempo; I did it to mirror the band director. This continued through college, my professional life, and my retirement. I cannot emphasize enough how much it helps, especially when there is a ritardando, or accelerando. Inexplicably, the whole band moves in unison.

 

[andruca]

No need to foot tap, specifically. Just sometimes some regular body motions might help you groove. Not something mechanical, but something you sorta' feel.

 

[JonathanPDX]

I tap or stomp or click my teeth or any number of weird movements to ground my body with the tempo, but when I first started lessons my teacher insisted I tap my foot and I hated it. I couldn't make my foot move while managing my hands and brain in operating the bass.

I found a new teacher, who is still my teacher 25 years later. In our first lesson I asked him about the foot tapping thing and whether or not you HAD to tap your foot to play. He laughed and said "Have you ever seen an orchestra play? If every musician tapped their foot you would not be able to hear their instruments over the sound of all that stomping."

 

[gtirard]

Long ago, my guitarist told me the same, it must be a guitarist thing, lol.

Currently playing the bass and singing in a vocal band (20 singers), our director uses this technique during warm-up exercices in order to help us to find a "collective groove".

• We do an exercice where she asks us to foot-tap the beat, until we're all set on a the same collective groove
• But then she explains it would look awfull on stage if we were all foot-taping, so once we're all set on the same groove, she asks us to stop foot taping but to continue to "feel" the pulse inside our body.

So why not, as a rythmic exercice during practice, it can help as a temporary mean to get a better timing and groove, and then you should stop using this technique for rehearsals and gigs, just like you can use a metronome.

 

[songwriter21]

I'm working with a BL on learning some difficult pieces. He insists that I need to foot tap and every other bass player he has worked with has used this technique.

I did a search here and could find very little.

Ridiculous to say that to you. But, it can be helpful when doing vox at the same time.

 

[Methaneman]

I'm working with a BL on learning some difficult pieces. He insists that I need to foot tap and every other bass player he has worked with has used this technique.

I did a search here and could find very little.

All through grade and high school I played trumpet. I was taught to tap my foot. Sometimes playing bass, I tap my foot. Don't think it's mandatory. Maybe your BL was in school bands growing up. Theres other ways to keep time as mentioned.

 

[dmt]

I could never consistently tap my foot and play until I learned to play drums. Then, after having played drums awhile, I finally "got it" about the foot tapping thing. A real "Ah ha!" moment, lol. If you can do it, it really helps. However, if you can’t do it, you take a easy enough natural playing situation and unnecessarily make it more awkward by making it necessary to divide part of your attention to keeping your foot going in time — in such case, it actually complicates things and can make one’s playing worse.

So, I’ve seen these clouds from both sides now, so to speak. As has been mentioned, moving your body (such as, playing with knees slightly bent, swaying your hips and dipping a shoulder in time with the music; or maybe just moving a knee back and forth; or bouncing up and down a bit; head movements; etc., can all have a similar effect and can be a cool visual thing on stage, too. But there is something about tapping one’s foot once you learn to do it.

I’d tell the band leader that I will absolutely start gradually incorporating foot tapping in some of my practicing time, and I appreciate that tapping one’s foot while playing is a long-established, very commonly used technique for helping and maintaining playing with timing, but right now it’s actually complicating things for me. What I want to do instead is use bigger body movements, which is actually more in line with what a bass hopefully does (stereotypically, the bass is the instrument that gets the booties shakin’), and something that a number of bassists have recommended to me. But, like I said, I will work on my foot tapping while playing, but please understand that it’s something that’s going to take some time.

[Of course, you know him and your relationship best, so if this is how you decide to handle it, put it however you think would work best between you]. Best of luck however you decide to proceed!

 

[albertus]

when you keep the tempo with your foot you are locking with it, and normally stop listening to the outside tempo. so I always recommend NOT to tap to keep the tempo, you can tap if it is part of your body movement and that is ok. relying on your foot to keep a steady tempo is adding another link in your chain of though than can go wrong.
also try to tap your foot with a compound signature, and see what happens. or when the key signature keeps changing, I worked in a musical pit and that happens a lot, so no, my advise is not to rely on your foot and use your ears. we are playing music, not soccer.

 

[IanStephenson]

Many years ago I was in a band with a conductor. If he caught someone tapping their foot he'd stop everything, and remind them that he dictated the tempo and they should be following him rather than their own beat.

Only now do I realise that I was in fact a bit whiplash, but it really happened, and there is some sense to it.

Not that I don't tap my foot when I need to hold a beat through a passage without a clear external source but its fair comment you should be following the band/conductor/ drummer/ temp leader rather than making up your own time.

 

[el murdoque]

Apart from what it does to you - there's another layer to this:

Maybe the BL or other members use the bassists foot as an optical metronome. I've had this happen when the drums were going through a complicated break and I was tapping my foot to land on the 1 correctly - when I'm unfamiliar with a piece, I sometimes do this until I have a better feel. When I stopped tapping, I learned that the singer and one of the guitarists did not come in on the drums count, but on the 5th tap of my foot.