Tapping your foot while playing - Please Stop?

[Ostie]

So if your audience is tapping their foot, is that a bad thing?

 

[Blaze Barlow]

Distracting for who?
I get that wearing white shoes might make it more obvious, and you've clearly seen the light there and stopped wearing such crimes against humanity and fashion, but seriously I doubt anyone's watching the bassplayer's feet.
I've always done it...indeed I've told a couple of time-challenged guitarists that if they lose timing to use my foot as a metronome to get themselves back in line.

I have seen a lot of great rockers wear white shoes on stage..looks fine to me..especially when wearing an entire "rock" outfit...looks much better than most garage bands who wear lawn mowing clothes on stage (baseball hats included).

 

[Lagado]

You can ring in the changes if you do it with bells on.

 

[Ruknrole]

It could be worse...

He’s got groove to spare!

 

[fhm555]

My dad told me if you can’t tap your foot to what you’re playing you are just playing with yourself.

 

[Lagado]

 

[jwoiton]

If you can't tap your foot to it, it ain't Rock and Roll.

 

[Sid Fang]

I keep better time if I’m moving my body, even if sometimes my movements have a strange relationship to the meter. I may actually tap my feet, but sometimes I sway, sometimes I swing the bass up and down, sometimes I sorta dance.

 

[5StringBlues]

I tend to lumber a bit.

 

[Lagado]

"Where?
There on the stair!
Where on the stair?
Right there!
A little mouse with clogs on
Well I declare!
Going clip-clippety-clop on the stair..."

 

[two fingers]

Do you tap your foot to keep time? I sure do. And in recent videos of me I see just how distracting it is. It has caused me to stop wearing white shoes on stage. Beyond that I think I need to stop tapping my foot and maybe start bouncing my leg or swaying or something more dance-like to keep time. I'm not sure I see many pro entertainers tapping their foot.

Do you tap your foot? Or have you stopped? If so, how?

The tapping isn't the issue here. If you are wearing white shoes on stage.... ESPECIALLY WHITE NEW BALANCE SNEAKERS.... you are aging yourself at least two decades. If you're 50, you look 70. If you're 70 you look 90.

Just stop it. Literally white New Balance sneakers are a filter of sorts for me and live music. If I walk into a venue and any band members are wearing them, I assume thay I'm about to hear awful renditions of Brown Eyed Girl and Long Train all night so I just leave. I've done it a dozen times. Once, my wife said "You can leave if you want. I'm staying." I waited outside for her for about 5 minutes. She came out and said "Never mind. You were right."


Seriously, white sneakers gotta go. You can wear white dress shoes if you're as cool as Larry Graham.... which you aren't. (Neither am I.)

Tapping your foot is no big deal at all.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

I got straight called out for tapping my foot by the orchestra director in a rehearsal during my short time as a DB major.
“It’s very obvious, and it doesn’t look professional. Stop!”
The most he’d allow was tapping the toe so lightly that your show wouldn’t move. I quickly broke that habit, just to have to relearn it when I started playing in bands and was/am “too stiff”.

 

[Lagado]

Swing it from shoulder to shoulder on the beat, tapping is way too stiff. You've got to feel it, not count it.

An internal sense of time.

 

[pappabass]

Why not? It's a time-honored tradition taught to many of us as a way to keep time and get the feel into our bodies.

I will confess that when I sit and play I sometimes STOMP my foot, which is definitely distracting. But just tapping? Nah. Been done by many.

Yes. I started music/band lessons when I was 12. Tapping my foot was beat into our heads. It still helps today.
Seeing your feet? Maybe skip the white shoes and maybe have less foot movement.

 

[Blueinred]

Do you tap your foot to keep time? I sure do. And in recent videos of me I see just how distracting it is. It has caused me to stop wearing white shoes on stage. Beyond that I think I need to stop tapping my foot and maybe start bouncing my leg or swaying or something more dance-like to keep time. I'm not sure I see many pro entertainers tapping their foot.

Do you tap your foot? Or have you stopped? If so, how?

I slightly flex and straighten my knee, does that count? Now twerking while playing, that's not cool at all.

 

[jnewmark]

Bandmates have accused me as " too smooth to move ", but I do occasionally sway back and forth when I'm really in the mood. Foot tapping ? Yeah I guess I do that too !

 

[Kipp Harrington]

Do you tap your foot to keep time? I sure do. And in recent videos of me I see just how distracting it is. It has caused me to stop wearing white shoes on stage. Beyond that I think I need to stop tapping my foot and maybe start bouncing my leg or swaying or something more dance-like to keep time. I'm not sure I see many pro entertainers tapping their foot.

Do you tap your foot? Or have you stopped? If so, how?

OMG! It's a natural thing!

 

[Milw_Chad]

I was taught by my band instructors in grade school to tap my foot.

Les Claypool taps his foot the best

 

[Claymore]

I have a micro body movement for every note that I don't play.

 

[Mili]

Why not? This is music! It's a human thing!
I'm not a Robot!