I can't play and tap my foot at the same time!

[headwizer]

I have been practicing with my new metronome and have found it very useful to keep time. I find it easiest to follow the beat by watching the bouncing red LED lights (the instrument sometimes overpowers the audio playback).

But I can't seem to tap my feet to the beat and play at the same time!!!! If I try to do this, I end up concentrating on the music and my foot feels lost. Is there a trick to doing this or is it just a matter of practice or are some people just genetically unable to tap their feet and play simultaneously?

[walrii]

I'm still a newbie myself, but I'll bet the old heads' answers will run something like "Do what works for you. If foot tapping doesn't work, try something else that does."

[Bloomfield]

I have been practicing with my new metronome and have found it very useful to keep time. I find it easiest to follow the beat by watching the bouncing red LED lights (the instrument sometimes overpowers the audio playback).

But I can't seem to tap my feet to the beat and play at the same time!!!! If I try to do this, I end up concentrating on the music and my foot feels lost. Is there a trick to doing this or is it just a matter of practice or are some people just genetically unable to tap their feet and play simultaneously?

It's a matter of practice (a learnable skill). Start by tapping your foot to music or the metronome.

[feadogin]

Don't tap your foot, then.
I have the same problem, (except on polkas) and I comfort myself with the fact that people say foot-tapping is a bad habit anyway.

J.

[monkey587]

I have been practicing with my new metronome and have found it very useful to keep time. I find it easiest to follow the beat by watching the bouncing red LED lights (the instrument sometimes overpowers the audio playback).

But I can't seem to tap my feet to the beat and play at the same time!!!! If I try to do this, I end up concentrating on the music and my foot feels lost. Is there a trick to doing this or is it just a matter of practice or are some people just genetically unable to tap their feet and play simultaneously?

You should strive to be able to play in time without tapping your feet. Foot-tapping (for me) is more about reminding OTHERS where the beat is.

[Cynth]

I would say to just practice following the red light if that is what works. Main thing is don't get side-tracked at this point worrying about other things too much. You could get overwhelmed. Just get your practice time in. No one cares if you tap your foot, they only care if the rhythm is right.

[Wanderer]

I always thought tapping feet was a tool to help you keep in time. If you can play in time without tapping your foot, then who cares if you can tap or not?

My bandmates in houston used to kid me because when I'm playing standing up, I bebop around like a chicken on horse tranquilizers, totally off the beat. But as long as the music is on the beat, that's what matters.

(It drove my drummer crazy! She just couldn't see how I could play on the beat, but bounce around with a totally disconnected rhythm! )

[jen f]

I can't do it either. I can tap my foot when I'm listening, but if I try to do it when I'm playing, my playing gets all messed up. So I quit worrying about it.

[barbuck]

After playing drums for past 30 years, I can't STOP tapping my feet, no matter what instrument I'm playing!

I can understand how Wanderer must have driven his drummer crazy; it would drive me nuts too.

PS: I've been learning/playing whistles for the past year or so, as well as playing with the pibgorn (Welsh hornpipe); I finally decided it's time to quit lurking around here and register!

[Cynth]

Even if he was bebopping in rhythm, if he looked like a slow moving chicken it would be distracting. I'd just watch him and forget to play the music.

[dfernandez77]

I can't do it either. I can tap my foot when I'm listening, but if I try to do it when I'm playing, my playing gets all messed up. So I quit worrying about it.

I'm with you Jen. I can walk and chew gum at the same time, but I can't tap my foot and play whistle at the same time. Good thing I can play the right rythm without tapping.

[dfernandez77]

I wonder if I can do the off-tempo chicken be-boppin. I doubt it - you probably have to be born with that talent.

[ChrisA]

FWIW, I taught myself to tap my foot in time, as it didn't come naturally. Actually, I have
no natural sense of rhythm to speak of, it's all learned with some difficulty. Anyway.

I started by tapping my foot in time to the metronome at something obnoxiously slow
like 30 bpm and then started playing. Every time I lost my place - either my foot
went out of time or my music did - I'd stop playing and just get my foot synced up
with the beat for a few bars before going on.

I rarely play with the metronome anymore, except once in awhile to check that my beat
isn't going all haywire. I do tap my foot to music sometimes, especially working through
and trying to line up the melody and the rhythm right.

I thought it was a worthwhile exercise for me, because I had such atrocious rhythm then
and I think I have pretty decent rhythm now. You may find the same, but on the other hand,
if your rhythm is already pretty good, then it'd just be an exercise in coordinating one more
movement with the rhythm and might not be worth much.

[Tommy]

An over size shoe could hide a tapping foot.

[anniemcu]

I have taken to toe tapping , and have found it more and more useful/necessary lately, LOL, as there are one or two people in our group who tend to speed up. I can get pretty darned 'thumpy' with my foot if necessary, and that with the thump of the bass is still not enough to hold em back sometimes.

I do tend to 'bop around', though I hope not quite like a chicken. A gal stopped me in the store the other day to say how much fun her family has at our sessions... and that they come mostly to watch me .. I'm hoping it's just cause her youngest is learning to play bass.