Anyone notice this? (foot tapping)

[Leo Chang]

Hi All

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this:

When foot tapping, I seem to keep time much better if I tap with my right foot.... I don't do so well when foot tapping with my left foot.

Very noticeable especially at higher tempos... for really slow stuff, both foot works. Once I hit moderate tempo... I MUST tap with the right foot if I want to keep good time.

My theory is that tapping with the right foot connects with my left brain... which handles linear time better than the right brain... hence better able to keep time.

What do you guys think?



- Leo.

[Endrik]

if you are right handed then the right side of your brain is where the creativity/musicality/intonation/rhythm etc. comes from
left side is purely for logic and knowledge
lefties usually have it the opposite way.

but I don't think it makes one of your legs rhythmically superior than the other... if it does then it's a "special case"
It doesn't matter for me personally which leg I use... I often tap with both
it's perhaps that you just control one of your legs better than the other...

maybe you should talk to drummers and ask if it was harder for one foot (either the hi-hat foot or kick drum foot) to get the timing right.

[Super_shredder]

i used to have that problem, i made an effort to count with ym left aswell and a lot of the time il count with both i.e. alternate feet at high tempos. i look like a dick while practising but oh well

[triplehold]

If you are onstage tap with your heel, it looks cooler. Many, many years ago when I was a teenager I had a roommate who played guitar. We use to jam a lot and the downstairs neighbor use to come up and politely complain. He was a huge, older military officer and he always said it wasn't our playing, but my friend tapping his foot on the floor when we were jamming. I never tap my foot, I just lock in with the drummer or use my built in clock.

[Leo Chang]

I never tap my foot, I just lock in with the drummer or use my built in clock.

That gave me an idea... tonight as I was playing, I tried not to foot tap at all, but use other kinds of body movement to "lock in" the time.

That seems to work much better, my playing has more of a "flow" to it rather than sounding "clinical", and a few "stage presence" moves just naturally came out. (plus I was playing Rising Force, so was imitating young Yngwie's stage moves a bit )

[AlexL]

My instructor told me to start tapping my foot. I never have before, but he said I won't play my leads in proper time if I can't play them while tapping my foot.

I thought he was nuts, but as soon as I started tapping my foot, I found I couldn't play some of the trickier runs, because I was thinking about my foot. Which told me that I didn't have the runs down to the point where I could play them without thinking about them.

I don't plan on always tapping my foot, but it will be good for practice.

- E.