Foot tapping?

[ardgedee]

Another school band alumnus. In both private lessons and band rehearsals we were required to foot tap the tempo. We would even have times where the band director would have us tap without playing while he counted us through metrically tricky sections. Since marching band was mandatory for everyone in stage band, the idea of using your feet to keep time transferred naturally.

I don't have a strong opinion about it now. I don't usually tap when I play bass. I also don't have a great sense of time but that's no different from back when I would tap in stage band. There's a measure of "you either got it or you don't" combined with however much extra practice you'll personally need to get it.

 

[gtirard]

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.

Now you say it, I think back about my former guitarist and I'm sure it's exactly that: he was using my foot as his optical metronome.

 

[Dana R Gregory]

For me, foot tapping is just a distraction and will actually throw my timing off, especially if I am playing a melody instrument. I never used it and don't plan to in the future.

 

[fhm555]

Foot tapping was something I picked up from my dad way back at the dawn of time when he was first showing me how to play. He tried to get me to hum as I played as a way to learn to sing while playing, but that never worked out, but foot tapping? Been doing it so long it’s automatic when I’m first learning something new. I usually quit doing it once I’ve got that new thing under my hands, but occasionally I’ll catch myself tapping without realizing I’m doing it if I’m struggling to keep my place, oh and almost forgot. It only works if I not playing with a drummer because the drummer dictates timing for me in that situation.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

I knew an upright bass player who tapped both feet, alternately. Craziest thing I ever saw, but it totally worked for him.

I don't think it's a prerequisite or anything, but it doesn't hurt.

 

[mambo4]

Maybe he's politely trying to tell you something?

That’s my reaction too. It’s a difficult piece, so you are probably struggling with the time. So the BL thinks back to the elementary school solution: tap your foot.

What the BL wants is better time ,not foot tapping

I distinctly recall struggling with Cuban rhythms when I started playing in a “salsa” band. I was faking it , playing my ignorant impression of something salsa-ish. Like most “simple” styles, it was deeper and more subtle than I had at first thought. It took effort and study to get it right. Simply tapping my foot was not the solution.

Are you aware of what part of the rhythm is a struggle? Can you notate it? Are you winging it from memory, or do you understand precisely where the beats and notes fall? Are there other instruments playing rhythms that can help be a cue?

 

[lark_z]

Now the band hole was carpeted,

This little typing error just kills me. Ha.

I don't foot tap much. I'm an old band nerd and I think I move my heel to the beat when I'm sitting sometimes. My spouse taps her toes and when she starts sagging behind the beat, her foot taps slow down also. It makes me shake my head every time I see it.

 

[Ostie]

He’s your band leader, not your bass teacher. What works for him may not work for you.

 

[turf3]

Another school band alumnus. In both private lessons and band rehearsals we were required to foot tap the tempo. We would even have times where the band director would have us tap without playing while he counted us through metrically tricky sections. Since marching band was mandatory for everyone in stage band, the idea of using your feet to keep time transferred naturally.

I don't have a strong opinion about it now. I don't usually tap when I play bass. I also don't have a great sense of time but that's no different from back when I would tap in stage band. There's a measure of "you either got it or you don't" combined with however much extra practice you'll personally need to get it.

REALLY???

Man, that was the first thing all my music instructors bore down on. I simply can't imagine any competent school band instructor REQUIRING players to tap their feet.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

Another school band alumnus. In both private lessons and band rehearsals we were required to foot tap the tempo.

During my 4 years in school of music, we were strictly forbidden to tap our foot. It was interpreted as a characteristic of "really amateur" musicians.
During solfege classes, we were required to conduct time/beating time with our right(in my case) hand.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

What the BL wants is better time ,not foot tapping

Most probably, or maybe, some intricate nuances of this/that phrasing.
The best cure for that kind of cases is to use the metronome (slower) and record that spot/the whole track.

 

[ardgedee]

Man, that was the first thing all my music instructors bore down on. I simply can't imagine any competent school band instructor REQUIRING players to tap their feet.

During my 4 years in school of music, we were strictly forbidden to tap our foot. It was interpreted as a characteristic of "really amateur" musicians.

I probably left that ambiguous, sorry... this was in high school. I didn't take post-high school music education.

 

[klyph]

Is the pay good enough for you to be a dancer as well as a player? A bassist keeps the time with his hands and his mind." Insist"? Because he's paranoid about you dragging out of the gate because of his experiences with other players? Nope. My feet are terrible- I would literally have to practice tapping my foot while playing MORE than almost any "tricky" material. This would probably be an actual dealbreaker for me, as crazy as that sounds.

 

[Steve Dallman]

I've tapped my foot since I played trumpet in grade and middle school. In 67 I started playing guitar, and in 69 switched to bass. I still tap my foot, or heel, and bounce and sway when I play. At church we use a click. Tapping helps me stay locked with the click.

 

[Admiral Akbar]

Funny — I took some lessons with the great Jerry Jemmott in the 1990’s and he told me to STOP tapping my foot. So I did.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

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.

Foot tapping is an excellent way to keep time. My father was a high school band director and he insisted I use foot tapping regardless of what instrument I was playing. He did say, however, that any physical movement would suffice. Trying to keep time without some physical movement is futile.
If you think you can't do it, all you are saying is I haven't practiced it enough.

 

[KenSmithFan]

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.

Just tell him OK, then don’t bother. Every time he brings it up, just say OK.

I hate people telling me how to fix a problem with my playing. Tell me what the problem is and I’LL figure out how to fix it.

 

[JazznFunk]

If you HAVE to tap your feet to keep time, that's a problem. If you do it as a natural, in the moment response to playing and it isn't a crutch.... whatever. But no, I would not say it's a requirement. I'll do it sometimes if the time is getting wonky and if making it obvious where the time is in my playing isn't getting the point across. I know of several bandleaders who do not want to see foot tapping.

 

[JazznFunk]

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.

This. You shouldn't be the crutch for other peoples' subpar sense of time.

 

[Turnaround]

I watched a well known artist tapping her foot while singing as Anna in a stage production of "The King And I". Ruined the performance.