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  #16  
Old 01-14-2020, 09:38 AM
Silly Moustache Silly Moustache is online now
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No, not really.

I am an ex drummer so if I et my feet do what comes naturally my left would be playing an imaginary hi-hat and my right the bass drum.
like others, I stand to perform.
My right hand is pretty rhythmic with my boom-chick style.

I have a friend who is a professional acoustic blues singer/player.
he cannot help but stomp.
he did t o hard for so long that he developed problems with his leg and had to have a stent fitted into it! He stomps a bit less now.
last week i was watching the feet of the acts playing at my club (I sit by the stage at the mixer)

I was surprised how many of the lesser performers tapped in time with the melody and not the rhythm. (bit like Kieth Moon used to play).
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  #17  
Old 01-14-2020, 09:54 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Riverwolf View Post
(mods, if this should be in the play section then please move)

I'm not sure when I started but now my left foot keeps perfect time with my beat.
I remember years ago a teacher told me that my playing was clean.
But my timing was all over the place.
He said that it was not possible to tap his foot to my playing.
Try as I might it was just not possible for me either.
And now it has become automatic.
I tap sometimes, not all the time.

The question, though, is: your left foot may be keeping "perfect time with my beat." But is your beat in perfect time?

What your teacher said back then reminds of a common experience I'd see in jazz workshops, jam sessions with bunches of amateurs (including me!). I'd see horn players playing out of time, and tapping their feet out of time too. Obviously they thought they were in time. Presumably they thought the foot tapping helped, but obviously it didn't.

The reason - obviously - is their foot was being controlled by the same faulty internal clock that their fingers (and mouths, being horn players) were.

Your foot is not a metronome. Your sense of time is organic, it's going to shift this way and that depending on your mood. You can think you're holding a tempo when you're not.

Where foot tapping does help - IME and maybe in your case too (as you time has obviously improved in some way) - is when your sense of time is already reasonably good, and you're playing a lot of syncopated rhythms. Foot tapping helps keep the basic pulse steady so you can feel whereabouts the chords and notes should fall relative to the beat.

What foot tapping won't do (and a lot of people think it does) is help you keep to a steady tempo, without slowing down or speeding up. I.e, it can help you place those syncopations correctly against the beat, getting strumming patterns and grooves working, but it may not help you keep the beat at a steady overall tempo. That's what metronome practice is for.

When you see pros tapping their foot, it's probably not because it helps them keep time. It's because their time is already good, and they are just expressing that with the foot tapping - as they are with their playing too. The groove is already in them, and they are just moving to it.
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  #18  
Old 01-14-2020, 10:16 AM
PHJim PHJim is offline
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Yes, and unless I really concentrate, it's hard to control.
In the sixties and seventies, I had complaints from the folks in the apartment below.
At recording sessions, I've had the engineer tell me to take off my shoes and once had to put my foot on a pillow.
I'm a member of the Northumberland Orchestra & Choir and have been told by the director, "This isn't folk music Jim. If you must tap your foot, try leaving your foot on the floor and tapping your toe inside your shoe."
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  #19  
Old 01-14-2020, 10:28 AM
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raysachs raysachs is offline
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Depends on the tune. If I'm playing some sort of blues with a backbeat, I'm sometimes a foot stomper. If I'm playing something slower and with less of a rhythmic emphasis, I often don't. I think I don't more often than I do, because when I do, I notice it and I'm powerless to stop it...
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  #20  
Old 01-14-2020, 11:30 AM
HodgdonExtreme HodgdonExtreme is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
Your foot is not a metronome. Your sense of time is organic, it's going to shift this way and that depending on your mood. You can think you're holding a tempo when you're not.
Good points!

I'd argue, however, that a mediocre player with poor organic timing (like me) will keep better (albeit maybe not great) time if they tap vs. not.

Especially when the tune has a mix of whole, half, quarter and eighth notes. It's not hard to keep decent time when playing a tune with all 1/8 notes - for example "The Boxer" by Paul Simon.

I've almost got "Dead Flowers" by Townes Van Zandt worked out. It's got 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16 notes, in a rather randomized fashion. Tapping it out was crucial for me to get the timing anywhere close. Then I needed to play with a metronome to get it just right. Then to get the right lazy-ish feel to the tune, I had to stop playing it with a metronome!
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  #21  
Old 01-14-2020, 12:53 PM
Riverwolf Riverwolf is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyo View Post
Is that a beat you've measured with a metronome or click track or other means? If so, fantastic. If not, I challenge you to play along to a metronome before you make such a claim.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
The question, though, is: your left foot may be keeping "perfect time with my beat." But is your beat in perfect time?
Sorry guys. I meant my left foot now taps in time to my rhythm.
I don't have perfect timing.
Contrary, I play most everything slowed down as I like that style.
My left foot and right hand are playing together with whatever beat I play.
Maybe I just don't slow down or speed up a lot like I used too?
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  #22  
Old 01-14-2020, 02:00 PM
DukeX DukeX is offline
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Sometimes I does, and sometimes I doesn't. Sometimes I just don't know.
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  #23  
Old 01-14-2020, 02:12 PM
nickv6 nickv6 is offline
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I'm not but Hank Marvin and the shadows were in 1963
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  #24  
Old 01-14-2020, 03:50 PM
tonyo tonyo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Riverwolf View Post
Sorry guys. I meant my left foot now taps in time to my rhythm.
I don't have perfect timing.
Contrary, I play most everything slowed down as I like that style.
My left foot and right hand are playing together with whatever beat I play.
Maybe I just don't slow down or speed up a lot like I used too?
A metronome is a great way to work out if you still speed up or slow down. I speed up quite regularly esp when playing with others.

It took a few tries to get used to playing with the metronome. The first few times I hated it, it took all the fun out of playing. So every six months or so I came back to it. Now it doesn't take any fun out of the playing. It does amuse me at times to see how when I think I'm on time, and I'm stomping my foot along quite nicely, that the metronome tells me how close or far I am from being on time.

I bought a DRS-01 Boss unit which is a fair bit more fun to play along to than the plain vanilla metronome I have on my phone.
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  #25  
Old 01-15-2020, 04:06 AM
slide496 slide496 is offline
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Yes, just started but I don't mind if if it's not audible. Finding it helps move the guitar along from one line or phrase of music to the next as I pause too much in phrasing
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  #26  
Old 01-15-2020, 01:20 PM
DesertTwang DesertTwang is offline
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Always. I wouldn't be a bluegrasser if I didn't.
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  #27  
Old 01-15-2020, 10:37 PM
The Bard Rocks The Bard Rocks is offline
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You can have a lot of fun watching professionals tap (or not). I remember one guy who'd tap with both feet - and knees. Another would tap one foot or the other, then stop, then after a bit, change. I am sure he was not thinking about it at all.
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  #28  
Old 01-16-2020, 12:20 AM
PHJim PHJim is offline
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The first time I saw John Hartford live was about 45 years ago. He played guitar, banjo and fiddle sitting down, but his feet were going a mile a minute.
After a couple of decades, he started playing standing up with his feet still going a mile a minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCVQ3w3sKxA
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  #29  
Old 01-16-2020, 05:18 AM
rwhitney rwhitney is offline
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I’ve always tapped my left foot (I’m right handed; do lefties tap their right foot?) while playing guitar, bass, even piano much of the time (though my left hand can substitute if it has a steady pattern). I don’t remember if someone advised me to do this, but it absolutely helps keep a steady beat.
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  #30  
Old 01-16-2020, 10:01 AM
Rudy4 Rudy4 is offline
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Yes, when I feel the urge. I ALWAYS "tap" on the back beat, though. When I'm sitting with a group of other players I'm the only one who feels the beat on the 2 and 4. It's somewhat embarrassing, but I've been doing it for 50 years and I'm not about to change that any easier than changing my left-handedness.

Luckily, there's no handedness with instruments , so I play "right-handed" just fine.
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