Foot timekeeping/rhythm

[mandocrucian]

Do you keep time with your foot?

If you are RHed do you favor the right foot?

LHed players, do you tend to use the left foot?

<span style='color:red'>]Lefties who play RHed...... which foot do you use?</span>

Is your foot-tapping intentionally audible (for added percussive effect)? #
Heel or toe? # Or, both H-T, for a low-high effect?

Niles H

[Andrew Lewis]

I write and eat LH. I catch and throw right. I bat switch. I play mando and guitar RH. Think you can take a guess?
I usually just go with whatever foot is most convenient at the time. When I am working on something new, however, I do emphasize the beat with my foot, and I tend to favor the left foot then. Almost always use the toe. I have been known, though, to stomp my heels during a particularly raucous jam!

Oh, and I do it audibly on purpose for percussion when it feels appropriate.

[sunburst]

I used to be a drummer.
If I pat my foot on the beat, it will be the right foot.
If I pat my foot on the back beat, that will be the left.

(Bass drum, right foot; hi-hat, left foot.)

[Paul Kotapish]

I'm a right-handed player, left-footed, downbeat tapper.

Toe, not heel.

I consciously cultivated this preference many years ago after noting that most of the players whose rhythm I admired and who seemed to have a profoundly deep sense of time tended to keep time with their cross-dominant foot.

An absolutely unscientific basis for anything, but it works for me--better than the alternative, anyway.

[Walter Newton]

My data point - I play mando (and do everything else) right handed, I "sometimes" tap my foot -when I do it's the right toe on the downbeats, not really for any audible percussive effect. Left foot and/or "heel" tapping feels unnatural to me.

[Peter Hackman]

This is a trap.

[mandocrucian]

Did anyone see The Human Hambone (http://www.worldlinktv.org/programming/programDescription.php4?code=hambone) documentary on WorldLinkTV?

Just think if John Lee Hooker had just a fraction of the foot technique of Sandman Sims!

It's easy to tap (or strum) a syncopated rhythm with either hand over a simple 1-2-3-4 heel-toe-heel-toe (kick/snare) timekeeping groove. #Reverse it and move the syncopated groove to the foot while the hand keeps a simple 1-2-3-4, and (I find) that it's easier to do it cross-limbed (e.g. left foot/right hand) than to do both on the same side (right foot and right hand).

But that's why I practice the drum rudiments with each foot (singly..heel-toe) as well as between R&L feet in various combinations. (Always do the mirror image of any pattern, leading with the left instead of the right.)

NH

PS: Hey Peter, nice photo on your profile! Bad night at the "Midnight Sun Saloon"?

[Michael H Geimer]

I use both feet to tap, depending on the situation, and what instrument I'm playing.

I also use my feet for precussive effect, and to cue changes. For this purpose, I might use my toes, or my heels, or both in succesion to impart a clog-like feel to the foot tapping.

I sometimes close my eyes, wiggle around and bob my head, too. The whole effect is rather goofy looking, I'm sure.

[kvk]

Write LH.
Eat LH.
Use scissors RH.

Play RH.

Tap foot - left exclusively.
Always tap toe, never heel.
Always downbeat.
On 1, 2, 3, and 4 in 4/4.
On 1 and 2 in 2/4 or 2/2.
Once in a while, I'll tap only on 1 in 2/4 or 2/2 instead of on 1 and 2.

Definitley have tapped my foot very audibly at jams when there's no bass and no guitar is realy kicking on the downbeat either.

Found out that trying to tap audibly while wearing Crocs is pointless; foam rubber tapped on a wood deck make virtually no sound. (Note to self: wear real shoes to jam next time)

[GVD]

PS: Hey Peter, nice photo on your profile! Bad night at the "Midnight Sun Saloon"?

Ouch what's the story behind that pic #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

GVD

[Peter Hackman]

PS: Hey Peter, nice photo on your profile! Bad night at the "Midnight Sun Saloon"?

Ouch what's the story behind that pic #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

GVD
Bicycle accident. I chose that photo because it made me look younger
(I was 60 at the time).

Now I'll try to answer the questions. I'm a righthanded player,
but I eat with the fork in my right hand and the knife in the left
and at the computer I mouse with my left hand. A natural extension of the age-old habit of operating a desk calculator with the left hand - the right hand
is for the pencil.

Didn't know which foot I tap without checking. Playing cross-legged
I tap my right foot, otherwise my left.

[Chip Booth]

Do you keep time with your foot? yes

If you are RHed do you favor the right foot? No, I'm a strict righty but tend to favor my left foot, though I will also use my right sometimes.

Is your foot-tapping intentionally audible (for added percussive effect)? I will occasionaly will stomp for a percussive effect, but only very occasionally.

Heel or toe? I tap my toe not my heel, unless I stomp for a percussive effect and that tends to be flatfooted.

Chip

[Brad Weiss]

Like a good many folks: write, eat, throw a frisbee left-handed. Throw everything else, swing (bats, rackets) play mandolin and guitar right-handed. #I think I have better wrist control and range of motion with my left, more strength in my right. I do tap my toe (and/or heel and drum my fingers) a bit more effectively with my left side, but I can go either way on that. No stomping for me!

#I've often wondered if my timing and rhythmic control would have been better had I started way back when as a lefty on guitar - too late now, or at least I'm not willing to put up with the prolonged frustration re-tooling as a lefty would take (I'm frustrated enough as a righty, thank you very much!)

[John Flynn]

When I took a mando and banjo workshop with the great Celtic player John Carty, he played seated and he would tap both his heels and his toes on both feet! It was like this Irish dance he would do when he was playing. I am not even sure how aware he was that he was doing it, but it was great to watch!

[MandoJon]

I tap either foot depending on nothing inparticular. I will tap heel or toe depending on how I'm sitting and sometimes I tap both feet, but then, like Sunburst, I have dabbled in drums and although I never really rated them as 'my' instrument, old habits die hard. Also Like Sunburst I will tend to use the right foot for the beat and the left for the off-beat although I do let the rythm pass between them sometimes too.

The only difference is if I'm standing. Then I only tap my right toe on the beat. Tapping both feet is too weird and leads to a sudden disinclination to verticality of the performer.

I just don't think too much about it - until I'm unable to tap my feet and then I go off-rhythm. Classically trained people don't like you clogging away on songs and I used to be asked not to tap in my church band (apparantly if you're classically trained, tapping your foot throws you off the beat strangely enough). They've given up asking me not to and the only time I get a row for not being in time is when I don't tap (go figure).

PS - does anybody do that spasmodic knee squat/jerk thing to keep time (like you see in spoofs of Old Time music e.g. Oh Brother Where Art Thou)?

[Slim Pickins]

Donna Stoneman tap danced while playing her mando. Or Clogged. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[JeffD]

Have any of you seen "La Bottine Souriante" ? Their feet are part of their sound.


I tap my foot, either one, when I am playing alone. I have gotten into the habit, a good one I think, of deliberately not tapping my foot when playing with others, and instead following the beat created by the ensemble. If the group seems to be losing the beat, I will start tapping again.

[Michael Gowell]

I've been trying to learn to tap my foot to the backbeat, so I can keep my chop in time. #But somehow I keep slipping into tapping on the downbeat and my chop gets tangled up. #Anyone else have this problem & discovered a cure?

[jmcgann]

Rhythm Tune Up DVD: http://www.johnmcgann.com/books.html

[Katie]

I'm right handed, but I tap or don't tap with either foot, heel or toe depending on the circumstances. When I was a kid learning the trumpet I tapped too loud. In that situation you don't want your foot to be heard. At first I tried tapping my foot inside my shoe, but I like the physical movement, so later I switched to tapping with my heel, but never letting my heel actually make contact with the ground. Most of the movement was in my knees then. That's good for back beats because you can really put the emphasis on raising your knees, but it's not as confusing as trying to tap your foot on the back beat.
On mando I don't tap my foot as much, mostly because the stuff I'm playing isn't so rhythmically complex that I can't internalize the beat. Mostly I just tap when I'm playing with others, which isn't very often, and then I switch around pretty unconsciously.

[Mike Buesseler]

I've been trying to learn to tap my foot to the backbeat, so I can keep my chop in time. But somehow I keep slipping into tapping on the downbeat and my chop gets tangled up. Anyone else have this problem & discovered a cure?

Just as an experiment, I tried tapping my left foot on the downbeat and my right on the back beat, to see if this might be a solution for your problem (and, it might be). But, what I discovered was that I had a tendency to switch. In other words, I'd wind up playing the downbeat along with the right foot tap. Makes me think I need to give this foot tapping thing a lot more thought. I don't do it enough, for one thing.....

[mandocrucian]

I've been incorporating foot percussion as an extension of my playing for a decade, but decided to push it to another level entirely. I was interested in responses re:dominance because of some of those issues I noticed with myself, and wondered where it fell in the general population spectrum.

I practice the snare drum rudiments in various binary combinations: R-heel/R-toe, L-h/L-t, Rh/Lh, Rt/Lt, Rh/Lt, Lh/Rt. #Then reverse them, if the R leads, then do it with the L leading.

Then kick/snare drums grooves with just one foot (heel=kick/toe=snare), then the other, then both together; then combinations where both feet are involved. lead with the right, then reverse it to leading with the left. Then start alternating between R and L leading, until it doesn't make any difference.

<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>There's bound to be overlap between this and clogging or tap, but I'm coming at from a drummer angle. But I need to investigate the dance technique for usable sonic techinques and moves. (these dance people don't want to teach this stuff unless you are into to doing the "dance" thing. I don't care about tapping up and down the stairs or to "puuhhhhhh-on ddaaaaa Rreeeeeee" (Peter Boyle reference)</span>

2/4, 4/4, 3/4 6/8, 12/8, #but sometimes 5/4, 7/8, additive rhythm etc. #Polyrhythm exercises.

Then kick/snare patterns on one foot, while the other keeps a hi-hat/cymbal/shaker part going, for a more "complete" drum kit. (or add hand percussion)

And, to do it in a sonically effective way without having to drag a lot of drum gear around, which is a hassle. (Maybe a board with some midi-triggers plugged into a drum machine/tone generator would be good to get the big drum sound, rather than the 1-foot-kit.)

Actually, I probably (currently) mess with this #more than I do playing the mando. Sit at the computer and tap out rudiments, or grooves. Ingrain the mechanics of it, in all the various combinations/permutations til it becomes automatic and doesn't require conscious thought.

Easy to play mando over the simple timekeeping grooves, more difficult when the drums rhythms get increasingly syncopated and busy. Work through "Ticket To Ride" and "Hony Tonk Women" into, eventually, the N.O. second line stuff like "Junko Partner".

All the added control of the feet also, by default, ups the level for playing organ bass-pedals. I need to get a two-octave set somewhere. #Anybody got a broken Hammond (or other brand) organ that's got a full pedal board that they would be willing to strip out?

Thinking "what if" I had had a hipper piano teacher back when I took lessons back when I was in grades 3-6...less "Spinning Wheel" and John Thompson classical arrangments, and a lot more boogie-woogie or blues, I could have probably evolved into a killer B3 organist.

Niles H

[Bill Van Liere]

Because of a health condition I recently had to switch from right foot tapping to left foot tapping. It really was not hard for me as I played drums before I played guitar before I played mandolin. The process of tapping is automatic and completly without thought on my part, but my foot seems opposite my wrist. Foot on 1, wrist on & and so forth.
When my wife and I play as a duo I bring along a plywood board that I put an old Barcus Berry mando pick-up in, just to fill out the sound a little, tap, tap. Flute/Octave Mando/Board combo. More specific; Casey Burns blackwood flute, SOS Octave mando and left over rabbit hutch plywood/Barcus Berry board.

[daisygirl]

Like a few other folks said, I do some things left-handed and some right. I write left, catch left but throw right (and thus you do not want me on your softball team), eat with both hands (heh. fork in the left hand, knife in the right, why do people switch back and forth anyway?) Almost anything that involves a bat/racket/stick/club/bludgeon I use right-handed, except I play pool left-handed. I play mandolin right-handed.

The tapping thing--I'm pretty sure it's random. I don't think I favor one side or the other unless I happen to be sitting in such a way as to make one side easier than the other.

[bluesmandolinman]

I am right handed but tapping with both legs ... nevertheless it´s not really intentionally...more emotionally ( not controlled from my mind as a time measure )... and mostly on uptempo songs....and never ever on 3/4 waltz time ;-)

[250sc]

Yes, I tap audibly with the ball of either foot. It's fun playing with the timing of a phrase while keeping your foot going at a steady pace.

[Mando-guy]

Since I'm also a piano player I tap with my left foot so I can use my right foot for the pedel, but when I keep time singing a song like in church I use my right more comfortable I guss. (I'm right-handed)

[evanreilly]

I have an interesting little audio clip with Bill Monroe telling about using the foot to keep time: tap foot time (http://world.std.com/~ereilly/tap_foot_time.mp3).