Foot tapping?

[GTx2]

I don't care what my band members do, so long as they're in time. It's that getting off-beat and out of time I cannot do, but as long as we meet in the mix at the correct time/place, I couldn't imagine caring how you get there. You do you.

 

[DigitalMan]

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

To make a football analogy, being the band leader is like being the head coach, and being the bass teacher is like being a position coach. The position coach lays out the plan for development, but the head coach is the one who can say whether or not your performance is acceptable.

 

[srosenthal13]

I said instrument.

*hides under desk

Dammit. I knew I should have read it slower.

 

[12BitSlab]

Is there any other instrument you can play in a band setting where you are subject to this level of micromanagement?

Every symphony orchestra in the world as well as the Studio Band at the Shaeffer School of Music.

 

[Peteyboy]

Every symphony orchestra in the world as well as the Studio Band at the Shaeffer School of Music.

I can learn from bandmates. I can take orders. But a rock band is not a symphony orchestra, nor is it a school.

 

[KevInDaBassment]

My reply: "This is why we have a drummer..."

I'll do a lot better playing along with a drummer, bongo, metronome, or some surly hobo on a trash can lid than tapping my own foot. Just another distraction for me, but YMMV.

 

[MechaSparky]

Instead of foot tapping, try hip thrusting. Insist the guitar player do it too.

It will improve your timing AND your stage presence.

 

[TOOL460002]

Foot tapping is good for bpm but I have a much easier time playing in odd time without it. Easiest way for me to start on something tricky is to just fill all the space, like ghost notes where there should be silence. Once you get the groove you can just go to hands. Plus odd time and prog and pedals are friends so you need to keep your feet free!

 

[12BitSlab]

I can learn from bandmates. I can take orders. But a rock band is not a symphony orchestra, nor is it a school.

Sorry. I couldn’t find the smiley face to indicate that I was kidding.

On the EB side of TB, there aren’t many orchestra players although there are a number of players who do pit/theater work.

The Studio Band is fictional. It is featured in the movie, “Whiplash”. If you have seen the movie, you would know what I mean.

 

[Peteyboy]

Sorry. I couldn’t find the smiley face to indicate that I was kidding.

On the EB side of TB, there aren’t many orchestra players although there are a number of players who do pit/theater work.

The Studio Band is fictional. It is featured in the movie, “Whiplash”. If you have seen the movie, you would know what I mean.

Ooooh, yeah. I've seen Whiplash. It was an unpleasant experience and I must have blocked out the particulars.

 

[bigdaddybass12]

I started playing music & lessons in the 6th grade band when I was 12. We to tap our foot. It was beat into our heads!

 

[edwinhurwitz]

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.

I play with a guitar player who taps his foot, especially when starting songs, but his foot is never in time. It makes it really hard to know when the downbeat is. I think foot tapping is more of a distraction than a help.

 

[J Wilson]

. . . .after all these years, NOW someone tells me where I went wrong.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

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've noticed that if I'm sitting, I tend to tap my foot.
When I'm standing, I "feel" the groove through my body movement.
I totally disagree(!) with some statements in this thread that if "you tap your foot or move your body" to the rhythm of some groove,
you have issues(??? - ) with your timing.

 

[Danny O Danny]

I tap my foot or bounce my heel most of the time when I play. It just comes automatically to me and feels very natural, although I've wondered if it might go back to when I played trumpet in school band for a couple of years as a kid (I can vaguely remember the teacher instructing us to tap our feet). The most recent drummer I worked with would watch my foot with great intensity. He said doing so helped him keep better time. As far as your BL goes though, as long as you're keeping good time it shouldn't matter whether your foot is involved or not.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Tapping your foot was more of an elementary / middle school thing when you're learning how to "music"; mostly gone by high school. You can always tap your big toe and then it doesn't look odd, assuming shoes not sandals.

 

[Marley's Ghost]

Before rehearsal last night I told the BL that foot tapping was not going to work for me. I'm going to use a metronome instead.

 

[Les Fret]

Nothing wrong with foot tapping if you do it consistently. I use it in my teaching when students have a hard time hearing or feeling the pulse. But most find it confusing to do two things at once in the beginning. I just start with simple rhythms. First quarter notes, then eighth note and then add syncopation and so on.

I find it especially useful when reading, especially with passages with a lot of rests and/or with complicated sixteenth note rhythms for example.

Is it obligatory? No. Can it help you? I think it does.

 

[mambo4]

Before rehearsal last night I told the BL that foot tapping was not going to work for me. I'm going to use a metronome instead.

Pretty sure that if you nail the part it will be a non issue

 

[bwildt]

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.

I often find myself slightly dipping my head on the backbeats.