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 Foot tapping...
Author: BassClarinetBaby 
Date:   2011-02-26 02:34

Do you condemn or condone it?

Never Bb, sometimes B#, and always B natural! ♫♪

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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: JJAlbrecht 
Date:   2011-02-26 02:36

It isn't very professional. Bad form past second year of playing in grade school bands. If you must do it, just move your toe(s) within your shoe.

Jeff

“Everyone discovers their own way of destroying themselves, and some people choose the clarinet.” Kalman Opperman, 1919-2010

"A drummer is a musician's best friend."


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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: davyd 
Date:   2011-02-26 04:32

I'll condone, if I must, it as long as it's synchronized with what we're playing. Out-of-sync foot tapping is about the worst non-sonic error a musician can make.

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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: davetrow 
Date:   2011-02-26 05:32

As long as it doesn't make any sound (leave that to the percussionists), and I can't see it, I don't care. I agree with JJ's comment: easy enough to do it inside your shoe--and I admit, I still need to do it from time to time.

There is, however, one problem with foot-tapping tolerance. In one community band I play in, we rehearse on a concrete floor, but often play concerts on wood dance floors or stages. What is soundless on concrete sounds like the Russian army on maneuvers on a sprung wooden floor.

Dave Trowbridge
Boulder Creek, CA

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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: Tobin 
Date:   2011-02-26 12:49

Re "out of sync" foot tapping: some people feel the beat in the beginning of the motion, and others at the end when contact with the floor is made. So I think it is possible for a band to be performing in time while appearing to be a disaster.

Since rhythm is a construct of the mind, and the individual in question is already directing their foot to keep time, they could (and should) be directing that energy/thought musically.

James

Gnothi Seauton

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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: Tony Pay 2017
Date:   2011-02-26 14:13

Posted here before a couple of times, without attribution; see, eg:

http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=339272&t=339114&v=t

...however:

http://www.heatherwastie.co.uk/words/words.html

Tony



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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: PrincessJ 
Date:   2011-02-26 14:22

Tap the foot if you're rhythmically challenged during scales, warm-ups, etc, to build a feel for rhythm. However I do not advise it to be done in an ensemble.

-Jenn
Circa 1940s Zebra Pan Am
1972 Noblet Paris 27
Leblanc Bliss 210
1928 Selmer Full Boehm in A
Amateur tech, amateur clarinetist, looking to learn!

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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: Lelia Loban 2017
Date:   2011-02-26 14:25

Tony, thanks for providing the link that credits the poem to Heather Wastie.

Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.

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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: tictactux 2017
Date:   2011-02-26 14:53

JJAlbrecht wrote:
> If you must do it, just move your toe(s) within your shoe.

That's why one shouldn't wear sandals (or peep toes for the ladies) to a performance. [tongue]

--
Ben

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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: Lelia Loban 2017
Date:   2011-02-26 14:57

Oh, there's an even better reason for not wearing sandals into a crowded pit: great big men clumping around in their great big clodhoppers and not looking where they're going, and women wearing stiletto heels and not looking where they're going, either. Owie!

Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.

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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: Bennett 2017
Date:   2011-02-26 17:40

I tap my foot a lot; it helps me play correctly - toes don't do it. Sometimes in chamber groups someone will complain that my foot tapping throws them off. I politely explain that at times I don't follow my foot so why should they.

I often tap my foot when listening to music. Foot tapping is not professional but neither am I.

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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: Arnoldstang 
Date:   2011-02-27 15:03

I recommend variable foot tapping. Just as you don't play at one mf dynamic continuously, vary the tap. In rhythmic music such as marches you can employ a solid tap. In very legato lyrical music employ a corresponding tap....smaller and smooth (perhaps a toe tap is good here). You could go further than the toe tap.....namely "internal pulse" and this would be good also. Let your tapping mirror the beating motion that a conductor might use. I also like to alternate left and right foot tapping. This coincides nicely with a 4/4 meter(left,right,left, right), Another tap possibility is to tap only 1 and 3 , only 1, 2and 4(jazz maybe) All these give a different feel for the musical line and can ground the musical line. In a teaching situation I would have the student employ many of these techniques in one study just to give them alternatives that they can decide upon themselves.

Freelance woodwind performer

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 Re: Foot tapping...
Author: Bassie 
Date:   2011-02-28 18:53

Kudos to Tony Pay for finding Heather Wastie! Thanks!

On a related note:

How much motion of the instrument is considered 'professional'? (Solo vs. ensemble).

And what about elbow flapping? :-D

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