To TAP or not to TAP - that is the question!

[Ptarmigan]

To TAP or not to TAP - that is the question!

Yeee Haaaw they're here!

Yes, today my Nylgut strings finally arrived, along with a new Banjo Head, 2 Teach Yourself Clawhammer DVDs & a Teach Yourself Tutor Book with CDs. Let Battle commence! ;D

Now, flicking through the book, during lunch, I noticed that this tutor is dead against students tapping their feet while they play, which is strange to me, given my Trad Irish background, which sees everyone tapping along to the music.

So now I'm wondering how many of you guys actually tap your foot or feet while you are playing?

Now to be honest, I'm happy tapping & happy not tapping, although I find it a little tricky not tapping when I'm playing my favourite Irish tunes - Slides & Polkas. So anyway, your replies will not actually change my own opinion on this subject, but I'd be very interested to see how the stats for our members here pan out.

If you have any strong feeling on the subject too, either way, I'd love to hear what they are.

Cheers
Dick

[john]

hi, Dick,
a good slide or a good one step are fine. I have many recordings demolished by people tramping their feet and or foot and talking and you know what.
Guess I am the only bass player around my aria who does not move my foot or feet while playing music.
But my heart does.
cheers,
John

[deleuran]

Hi Dick.
Sorry I can't vote. I miss a: "I sometimes tap my foot" button. Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont. Sometimes i don't the first half of a tune, and when the things get going, and it swings like...you know, I might be tapping for the rest of the tune.

I once saw a discussion on the Banjohangout, about this subject. Some thought it was OK, but some were strongly against, because the tapping ruined the sound in the microphones. And I can see that it can be a problem, depending of the type of floor, but on the other hand I think that we all should be allowed to let the feelings run off with us. So I guess I am mostly in favor of the tapping ;D
(Holy crap, is this a load of gibberish )

[Susi]

I'm with you there, Jesper! I do it sometimes, and sometimes not. I'm not very good at it because it often happens that I lose my sense of playing if I concentrate on tapping my foot...and they say you can't play in time if you don't tap your foot. Many folks are actually helped by tapping their feet, but I'm not one of them..... Sometimes it comes by itself though.

I'm very surprised to hear that a tutor actually is against it!!!!!!

[deleuran]

I must say that when I tap, I don't think about it. The foot does it all by itself.
I guess it's just because the music grabs me by the...so to speak
It's like blinking your eyes, or drawing your breath, you do it automatically without thinking about it.

[john]

deleuran said:

I must say that when I tap, I don't think about it. The foot does it all by itself.
I guess it's just because the music grabs me by the...so to speak
It's like blinking your eyes, or drawing your breath, you do it automatically without thinking about it.

TAP WATER??

[john]

Tapping your foot to the music is fine but be careful with the noise.
It is funny to look at peoples feet when they are trying to keep the beat. Most of them are out of sync. Sorry, no offence!!
I use my hands to keep the track sometimes. I play music with my brains and think with my heart.
Have a nice week-end
cheers,
John

[kristianrrb]

I voted 'never', actually. I agree with John completely that it can be very easy to go out of sync - It happens for me all the time, so that is a reason I dont really tap very much. I 'feel' (in lack of a better word) the music instead. I think my tapping looses sync because I really think (and try to play) much more syncopated than i would tap a foot.

/kristian

[deleuran]

I ALLWAYS keep the beat
when I tap my feet.

Hey it rhymed!! Looks like a little poem. Could be used as a chorus for a song!!
Well, it wasn't on purpose.

And John, how do you manage to use your hands to keep track? Can you clap hands and play the bass at the same time?
And I would say I feel quite the contrary to you. I think with my brain and play with my heart.
If I begin to think while playing, I immediately f*ck it up. Especially when you play fast, it is impossible to think and play at the same time. I think the music is played using the central nervous system or the spine, that is the motoric side of it. The emotional side of it lies elswhere.
A short while ago I saw an interesting program on TV. It was a brain doctor who were also a musician, who showed scans of what happened in the brain when we hear music.
The non-musicians had only activity in the right half of the brain, but the musicians were at the same time very active in the center for language in the left side of the brain, which shows that once you learn the 'vocabulary' you will hear music more like a form of communication or language. I find that interesting.

And now I am at the subject I will quote something from a little discussion in the Guitar section in this forum. In the thread: Erik Mongrain etc... It is an interview with the very fin jazz guitarist Joe Pass. An important statement I think: Don't think! If you begin to think, the music becomes stale:

....and then to the inteview, which ought to be interesting to all people who play an instrument.
Halfway into the interview, he talks about music is a kind of language, and you should not think when you play, but concentrate on the music, and use the big vocabulary you have gathered from a lot of sources throughout your life.
But don't think! Once you begin to think about what you're playing the music becomes stale.

I think he's got a point there. Something to think about. Here it comes:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIOp4TLTPYg

This brought me away from the foot tapping. I agree, that if you cant keep the rythm, and/or make so much noise, that you ruin the sound, don't tap!!

[john]

Hi, Jesper
my way of playing is very percussive, bended, twisted, pull offs and very crooked. So if I had to tap my feet and play with my heart??
I let my wife play with my heart.
I use my eyes and ears when playing when playing music and my brains is working overtime. Always a little bit ahead.
Like quick draw sometimes.
cheers,
Doc Holliday, the happy dentist

[deleuran]

...I use my eyes and ears...

Yeah, that's another important thing, use your ears. This is some of the main points in the Joe Pass interview, 1. Don' think! If you think the music becomes stilted. And 2. Listen! If you play with other people, two or more, listen to what the others play.

I see your point, John. A bass player can't tap his feet. It's another thing for me who sit down with a guitar or a mandolin. It is mostly in fast fiddle tunes (instrumentals) that me feet start tapping sometimes. It is not a conscious thing. If I started thinking about it I would mess up I guess. I haven't tried.

[haiku]

Dan Levenson in his "Clawhammer from scratch" advices not to tap - basically, if you can't keep a steady rythm, when you play, you'll just keep an unsteady rythm with your foot anyway.
I tend to agree with him - I saw many a musician tapping their feet, then just stop tapping or tapping off the beat when playing a complicated phrase...

As for me - I sometime tap, but not that much..
.it's just that I don't think about it.
Plus,I usally tap with the heel , and playing the banjo in my right thigh doesn't allow me much leg movements...