Foot tapping pipers!get off the stage.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 5:03 pm

Can't help but say this reminds me of one of my favorite musicians of all time, Chris Smither (a guitarist, not a piper) who incorporates both feet into his guitar playing and singing. He actually stomps on a piece of plywood that has contact mics attached and it runs through the PA just like his guitar. For each song he has a different syncopation going with his feet and the guitar. Sounds great when he does it.

Patrick D'Arcy · Post by **Patrick D'Arcy** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 5:07 pm

Jimmy Keane the Chicago accordion player in Bohola also does this... sports a rather fetching pair of clogs when stepping it out too

Patrick.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 5:26 pm

Pimp it out!

Yo G! Hook up yo set wid a gold package an' git it sparked out too! git some ice on dem regs dog! sh*t, all dem bitches be freakin' then, man. Damn.

Piobairi Uilleann Inis Fa · Mon Oct 04, 2004 5:37 pm

Jerry O sort of stomps his feet, and it actually sounds like he has a bodhran playing with him it is sometimes that loud. Hey, whatever you have to do to keep the even rhythm

tommykleen · Post by **tommykleen** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 7:42 pm

I have been thinking alot about foot tapping lately. Mostly, I really need to do it for my playing. But I have also thought how great it is in the hands

of some players. I saw Joe McKenna in Seattle this year...first time in years. Joe is a real board pounder. But you know what? It really works for his playing. He has so much going on with variations in his playing and all, that it just becomes part of the piece. Anchors it. I recall his set of Jenny's Welcome to Charlie/Paddy Taylor's. With those reels and his pounding along, it was just like some awesome soundtrack behind some epic scene in a movie: sweep and drama.

The other great tapper IMO is Maire Ni Ghrada (sorry, too lazy for the fadas). She is a great 'rhythmic player". Not the pounder that Joe is, but she does this fantastic thing of going to the offbeat on certain passages in the tune. Gives the piece a nice bit of swing.

And that's good.

t

fel bautista · Post by **fel bautista** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:08 pm

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I have problems just trying to play to my low level, much less doing the elephant-in-time- stomp

fel bautista · Post by **fel bautista** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:57 pm

ps -love the shoes, being the filipino that I am

slamat po -yo

mukade · Post by **mukade** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 9:51 pm

Stomp 'em boys.

Royce · Post by **Royce** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 11:12 pm

Droner wrote:Martin Hayes, that virtuoso fiddler from Feakle says he cannot physically play without tapping

I know guys like that and well, they're stuck. Having said that, what I notice an awful lot is that many who stomp quite loudly while playing actually stomp off beat, and sometimes quite randomly, especially in the tricky bits, where their foot will just hang a bit, then spastically thump up and down to catch up and then go totally off again at the next phrase.

Coming from Highland piping and before that some brass/concert band initial training, foot tapping has never been a big priority unless conducting a tune or noting a break etc.

I'm a groove player too, so even though I move or tap only rarely, because it shakes the pipes all over for one thing, I think the groove is in you head more than your feet, and by the time your foot hits the ground you're already beyond the subtle phrasing of the groove.

Royce

billh · Post by **billh** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 3:28 am

I find that foot tapping helps my rhythm. It took me awhile to learn to do it, after years of foot-idleness. Tapping doesn't have to mean stomping, after all. Mick O-Brien takes his right shoe off on stage sometimes.

I suspect it would help more people's rhythm, certainly many fiddle players (Hayes included) recommend it. If you can manage to "tap on the inside" without tapping on the outside, more power to you.

- Bill

bustapipuh · Post by **bustapipuh** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 9:44 am

Before I play anywhere, I always stomp my foot during the sound check to see what it sounds like through the mic's and how the stage resonates. If it's loud (my definition of loud is if my foot will be heard at all while the drummer is playing, it's too loud), then I go with the toe, or lose the shoe.
But like some other people are saying, in the right situation toe tapping can actually add to trad.
It's about reading a situation and having the ability to change yourself for your audiences benefit without losing any quality of music in that process.

gaydrian · Post by **gaydrian** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 12:18 pm

I will not stop tapping my foot even when the audience stops: talking, clapping their hands and tapping their feet!

Post by **Nanohedron** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 10:57 am

tommtkleen wrote:With those reels and his pounding along, it was just like some awesome soundtrack behind some epic scene in a movie: sweep and drama.

Just heard a tape of Liz Carroll playing some jigs solo: just deliberate, gutsy fiddling and her inexorable stomp. "Sweep and drama" is a good way of describing the effect. It may be that this sort of thing works best with solo playing, and the fiddle suits it for sure. I liked it.

Overall, I don't tap or stomp much as I'll do it at odd moments instead of steadily, and it looks weird and disjointed. My rhythm seems to be OK without it, anyway, so no matter.