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Tapping your foot while playing - Please Stop?

#162
darwin-bass said:
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?
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Dude.... who cares. Have fun, tap to your hearts content, and play the crap out of some music.
 
#164
Unless your one of the best ever:
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David Jayne said:
Which you should ALSO never do, unless you're Jon Anderson or work in an ABBA tribute band.
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#168
I do.
In some situations I'm the sole provider of the correct timing of whatevers going on. :rollno::bored::eek::banghead:
Our piano player (church music) is bad to pause and wait for the song leader and/or congregation to to start.
Sometimes it gets bad enough I NEED to tap my foot to help me drag the rest of the bunch along! :roflmao::bassist:
One of our guitarist didn't believe me when I told him how much I could change the timing.
"Watch this" .... in the space of one verse of a hymn, I increased and then decreased the tempo by 1 full beat then got it back to correct timing.
My wife ( the teacher ) just glared at me from the pews like I was an idiot while no one else noticed!
 
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#175
Ok, so I actually paid attention to what I do when playing.
I DON'T always tap my foot.
Some gospel songs I can just let my mind wander and drone along .... meh .... it's the nature of the genre.
Sometimes I tap my heel, others I just kinda bob my knee ..... that's the weird one.
On the really good stuff I get to really play on I move the neck of my bass either up and down or back and forth an inch or two in time.
But whenever I play something I have to concentrate on ...... back to the foot.
 
#176
I tap the when drummer can't keep time better than me.

Also I found that spelling the beats helps me more to be tight than tapping.

Each time I realise I can't count the time, it means that I am probably not comfortable enough with the right to be tight enough.
 
#177
sean_on_bass said:
The only time i consider foot tapping an issue is when it is audible on stage. If i can't hear it, i really don't mind. I don't tap my foot much really, i use my ears to keep time. I do move around quite a bit otherwise though, even when standing at an upright bass.

I've played with some people that tap loudly, and it is not always in time with the actual groove. It's sort of like they are just doing it subconsciously as a reflex. Those are the people that create the problem. It's as if i brought a metronome on stage with me and turned it on during a song at some random moment.
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What about when you are in the audience of a jazz show and some guy ext to you foot tap like crazy.

This drives me mad.
 
#180
basseux said:
I tap the when drummer can't keep time better than me.

Also I found that spelling the beats helps me more to be tight than tapping.

Each time I realise I can't count the time, it means that I am probably not comfortable enough with the right to be tight enough.
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Traduction inexacte? Spelling out the beats would be murder in a fast 7/8.
 

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