BC-126 • Foot tapping (how to and why)

[justinguitar]

Questions...

Lesson Link: http://justinguitar.com/en/BC-126-FootTapping.php

[plukey]

Hahahah, fancy trying to teach us to tap our feet!!!  Seriously though, it would seem I've been using the wrong foot all my life. So I'm off to practice like SeaSick Steve! Thanks Justin!

[licksnkicks]

LMAO!!

Licksnkicks

[Kane]

OK a foot tapping question following from the Black Crowes lesson - in the Crowes lesson you say it's a slow song that uses 16th note strumming - so, do you tap your foot in time with the strums or the "main" beat (the 1/2/3/4 bit )

[juindjmj]

How do i recognise the beat in any song??

[justinguitar]

OK a foot tapping question following from the Black Crowes lesson - in the Crowes lesson you say it's a slow song that uses 16th note strumming - so, do you tap your foot in time with the strums or the "main" beat (the 1/2/3/4 bit )

You always just tap on the beat. the 1, 2 3 and 4 - though for VERY slow songs sometimes you might tap on the &'s too - but that is rare and not something for beginners!

J

[justinguitar]

How do i recognise the beat in any song??

You listen - like trying to find a persons pulse, you have to try and figure out where the beat is - it will be consistent - but I'm not sure if I can explain that with words...

Just listen to some music - tap along and see if you can find the beat - if not - then ask a friend to show you, cos it has to be heard. Sorry, J

[Kane]

OK a foot tapping question following from the Black Crowes lesson - in the Crowes lesson you say it's a slow song that uses 16th note strumming - so, do you tap your foot in time with the strums or the "main" beat (the 1/2/3/4 bit )

You always just tap on the beat. the 1, 2 3 and 4 - though for VERY slow songs sometimes you might tap on the &'s too - but that is rare and not something for beginners!

J

Cheers Justin,
Glad to hear you tap on the beat - trying to tap on the 16th strums in the Crowes lesson was crippling lol

[Simonovski]

How do i recognise the beat in any song??

You listen - like trying to find a persons pulse, you have to try and figure out where the beat is - it will be consistent - but I'm not sure if I can explain that with words...

Just listen to some music - tap along and see if you can find the beat - if not - then ask a friend to show you, cos it has to be heard. Sorry, J

I was asked that same question once, it's really hard to explain! It's something you do without much thought to be honest. However, something that might help you start juindjmj is to listen out for the drums in a song. Especially in songs with simple drum patterns. Like this foo fighters song for example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVboOdX9icA&feature=fvw , from about 0.30 to 1.20 he's just hitting on the beat (so, 1 2 3 4).

But once you get the hang of it, you can tell the beat from whatever instrument you're listening to. Sorry I can't be more helpful but this really is a hard thing to explain.

[asp22]

I'm happy tapping my foot when playing simple rhythms, but when the rhythm gets more complex, my foot begins to follow my hand.

For example, if i have to play when the beat is like

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and,

my foot is quite happy tapping on the numbers and my had strums both upwards and downwards

If i try to play a rhythm

1       and ah  2    and    3 e and      4     and

my foot begins to follow my hand.


Can anyone offer help?

[Cue Zephyr]

I'd say just leave the foot out for a bit and practise the rhythm first.
I might be horribly wrong, I can't tell, because I've played the drums for years so everything is loosened up quite a bit.
Good luck.

[asp22]

I've got the rhythm down with the help of a metronome. So when playing with the metronome clicking, it's all OK. If I play without a metronome it is still OK. However if I try to 'be' the metronome by tapping my foot, well things go wrong.

I understand that things take time but are there any exercises that can help the learning process? I'm happy doing the hard work as long as I've got a constructive program to follow. Currently I'm 'just trying' which I guess isn't the best approach, but I don't know any better.

[Cue Zephyr]

Before I could do this on the drums (moving right hand in a different rhythm than the right foot), I used to sit down sometimes, and try to tap on my leg with my right hand, and try to tap another rhythm with my right foot, keeping it really simple and slow. Then sooner or later I got the hang of it. This also transfers to the guitar, of course.
Good luck.

[asp22]

Cue,

Thanks for the advice. I'll go back to simple rhythms and build from there. I'll report back if I am sucessful.

[asp22]

Success!

After a few weeks of going back to basic's I've gotten somewhere with foot tapping to a rhythm different to my hands. If any ones is interested here are a few things I tried.

Problem
Tapping along to a  1 + ah 2 + 3 e + 4 + rhythm

Things I tried (All done with a metronome):
60 bpm, tap along and strum 1 2 3 4 (one chord)
60 bpm, tap along and strum 1+ 2+ 3+ 4+
60 bpm, tap along and strum 1 2 3 4+
..... I guess you get the picture. I was only playing 8th notes and trying various rhythms.

Next I tried 16th notes
30 bpm (so I would be strumming at the same speed as above)
1 2 3 4 (here I focused on keeping the strumming arm moving)
1+ 2+ 3+ 4+
1e 2e 3e 4e
1+a 2+a 3+a 4+a
1 2 3 4e+a
and so on..

This worked well so I tried the problem rhythm, but had no success. The problem rhythm involved chord changes so i thought about trying it with one chord held down. This worked fine. So I did this for a while until the foot tapping and rhythm become instinctive. But when trying the problem rhythm I failed. It occurred to me that I had gotten used to hearing one chord and the sound of other chords throw me off.

More info
Chord progression of problem rhythm

1 + a    => Em x x
2 +       => Em Em
3 e +    => x x D
4 +       => D C5

Because I had gotten used to hearing one chord I thought I'd practice each beat in isolation and ignore the muted(x) strums. This worked well so I tried with the muted strums. At this point I noticed that my tapping foot was not linked to my strumming hand as I previously had thought, but to my fingering hand. When my left hand(finger board hand) changed position my foot went to tap.
To give an example on the 3rd beat I would tap on the first x and then again on the D.

To test my theory I tried playing the problem rhythm without the muted strums and found my foot was tapping with the beat of the metronome. To get around this I practiced each beat in isolation and started by just playing muted strings and adding a chord when I had gotten the rhythm into my head. For example, for beat 1

x  x x | x  x x | Em  x x |

This took awhile at a very slow bpm but I got there. The real problem was with beat 3. But with a lot of slow practice I managed to get it. I tired it all and it was ok up to beat 3 at which point things broke down. So I practiced the transition from 2 to 3 several times until my foot obeyed and now I can play the rhythm and tap my foot.

Some may say that I'm not feeling the rhythm but am simply teaching my foot to tap at a certain point in the strumming pattern. I guess there may be some truth in this (I haven't experimented with other rhythms to confirm or disprove this) however this morning was the first time I felt there was a little metronome inside and I could feel the weight of the arm moving left and right. Currently I'm only aware of it when I really concentrate. I hope with time it'll be second nature.

I hope this proves to be useful. I also found it useful to add some body swaying to the foot tapping.... you know just like Status Quo... oh dear!