Ear Playing And Foot Tapping

[michael sam wild]

At the International Concertina Association AGM last week we had a workshop from Keith Kendrick (EC and AC) and Sylvia Needham (Maccann Duet) Keith was working on playing by ear and I noticed that the people who normally learn by reading apparently didn't seem to tap their feet whilst trying to play the tunes by ear.

I am only just getting to grips with reading dots and I can't stop my feet tapping out a tune I am learning ( by ear obviously)

Does it matter in the long run? and once people have the tune does the rhythm develop with practice? Does it vary if you learn totally from the page , an unknown tune, from one where you hear one then go off for the dots or ABc or a recording..

 

 

Incidentally Sylvia said someone had shown that reading is left brain and ear is right brain activity. I'd be interested in finding out more on this. I can't find anything in Musicophilia(2007) by Oliver Sacks the neurobiologist.

Edited November 16, 2009 by michael sam wild

[Lawrence Reeves]

From my experience around children in music classes, they are taught not to tap their feet. In an effort to get them used to following a baton, the music teachers often have them make a conscious effort to not tap the foot. I would imagine that anyone, even as an adult whose only method of learning is from a printed page, the behavior is still curbed. It would be interesting to me to know how many players learned to play by ear after they were taught music by print. In my own case I was taught both methods from childhood. My father and family taught me by ear, and in school and choir by musical notation. There was a very long period where I only played from print, but now ( the past 25 years) prefer tho learn by ear. I can( although not done often) still read music very well, and find even if reading it I place ornamentation in the tunes even if not written. There is no such thing as playing a tune flat as written unless I work at it. At the same time I find I can quickly absorb a tune written, but loose it if not played often as compared to a tune learn solely by ear.

[yankeeclipper]

I first learned to play by ear, but the EC helped unravel the mysteries of reading music notation, too. Now I do both - but neither with foot tapping. I think foot tapping is mostly associated with dance music, which I seldom play.

[Alan Day]

Interesting this because as most of you know I always tap or even bang (Chris will confirm this)my foot to the music I am playing. I suspect the simple reason why those that play to dots rarely tap their foot is to prevent the vibrations sliding the music off the stand, or even worse kicking the stand over. I would like a pound for the number of times that someone in the band has kicked a pint of beer over the stage and we are standing in puddles for the rest of the evening.

[J Werner]

When I learned to read music in band class (trumpet), we were taught that you should tap your foot. If you tap your foot at a steady rhythm you can feel/count out the pace of quarter notes, eighth notes, etc, which maybe kind-of ties together the two sides of your brain.

 

I tap my foot both reading music and figuring it out by ear and I think it works well. But I guess if I had taken the trumpet further, someone at some point would have told me to quit tapping my foot...

Edited November 16, 2009 by J Werner

[Irene S.]

I suspect the simple reason why those that play to dots rarely tap their foot is to prevent the vibrations sliding the music off the stand, or even worse kicking the stand over.

 

An interesting idea Alan, but certainly not so in my case. I first learned to read music as an eight year old, in the initial stages in order to play the piano. In my teens I learned to sight read as a singer, and received continuing tuition over the many years in the choirs that I was a member of. I was taught to internalise the rhythm, to "feel" the beat, and we had training in clapping on off beats etc with eyes closed - all parts of training to appreciate rhythm and timing. Singers who thump their feet up and down in time to the music in choral concerts are not particularly welcome! And I have to say that if there is one thing I can't stand it's people who thump their feet up and down on wooden floors or staging in rehearsal. 95% of the time they are marginally off the beat (time lapse?), and are incredibly off putting. As an audience member I absolutely loathe people behind me in the audience who thump their feet up and down "in time " to the music - normally, again, they have no concept of the actual rhythm of a piece.I am sitting there with my internalised sense of the beat, and having to listen to some plonker inserting a rhythm section which has not been intended by the band or musician.

 

I don't normally tap my foot up and down when playing - after all those years of training and being taught to mentally tap my toe up and down, it would be wrong (and anyway, it's too blinking tiring!). On the other hand, I tend not to notice the continual foot thumping of one of my musical partners - probably because of his extremely accurate sense of rhythm ... or maybe because I just can't hear it over the tina that I'm playing at the time!!

[Tootler]

Interesting this because as most of you know I always tap or even bang (Chris will confirm this)my foot to the music I am playing. I suspect the simple reason why those that play to dots rarely tap their foot is to prevent the vibrations sliding the music off the stand, or even worse kicking the stand over. I would like a pound for the number of times that someone in the band has kicked a pint of beer over the stage and we are standing in puddles for the rest of the evening.

 

I don't think so. In fact as the previous poster has pointed out if you play in a "classical" setting you are actively discouraged from tapping your foot. I play recorder and, in my experience, most conductors actively dislike foot tapping and will invariably comment on it - some less politely than others . The conductor of the recorder group I play with regularly suggests wiggling your toes instead. I usually move my leg, rolling the ball of my foot so it does not actually tap down.

 

If I am playing in a folk setting, well that's a different matter

 

Geoff

[Larry Stout]

I rather dislike it when other musicians tap their feet and I try not to do it myself. One very good fiddler in my local session tends to stomp loudly just ahead of the beat, leading everyone to speed up. I'd much rather have a (good) bodhran player giving an accurate beat with some variety in how it is expressed.

 

An exception is the clogging which goes with good Quebecois fiddling. That is an art all its own.

 

I remember watching at a slow session where six sets of feet were tapping, none on the beat and none the same.

 

I did have 12 years of classical and baroque violin training in which tapping feet was definitely discouraged. I usually play for dancing now and prefer to count on the rhythm instruments (usually piano, sometimes accordion) to keep the beat steady.

[JimLucas]

Here are a couple of earlier Topics with the related themes:

Foot Tapping/stomping

Keeping Time

While I remember being taught by band and orchestra leaders (we used printed music) that one should never tap one's foot while playing (the marching of a marching band doesn't count), I don't recall that it was a habit I needed to break. Tapping my foot didn't come to me naturally. I was singing before I ever played an instrument, and I never had the urge to tap my foot along with the rhythm of a song.

 

While those who teach the reading of music often discourage foot-tapping, I don't believe there's any general relationship between foot tapping and "playing by ear". For some people, tapping the foot seems to be instinctive and a difficult habit to control, but for many others it's quite alien, regardless of how they learn or play.

[michael sam wild]

Thanks for the older posts jim

 

Alan how many calories have you burned stomping since you posted in 2003

[Alan Day]

Thanks for the older posts jim

 

Alan how many calories have you burned stomping since you posted in 2003

Non sadly, the trousers I wore in 2003 will not fit me now,

Perhaps if I stomp louder it may help

Al

[JimLucas]

Alan how many calories have you burned stomping since you posted in 2003

Non sadly, the trousers I wore in 2003 will not fit me now,

Perhaps if I stomp louder it may help

Try not stomping at all.

The stress of restraining yourself should take a lot of energy.

[geoffwright]

I was taught to read tadpoles from being 6 and have the God-given gift of being able to play by ear, and also write tadpoles down as I hear a tune.

With my classical head on, foot-tapping is a no-no.

When I get my squeeze-box head on, I do bounce one knee rather than foot-tap, mainly for the rest of the bands/rooms benefit.

 

Pet Hate - people who ignore the beat, even when you are stamping your foot.

 

 

 

Mary MacNamara admitted that she can't play without getting her feet going first - her feet are part of her music, and she has to have a carpet under her feet when playing in the TV studio so it doesn't upset the microphones.

[L'Albatroce]

I have a somewhat different theory about the whys and wherefores of foot-tapping: My first start in music involved reading notation from the beginning. In fact, it wasn't until later that I was able to pick up the tunes by ear. Now when I moved to the concertina I already knew some songs I wanted to play. I'd learned them by ear, and never seen a score for them. When I figured them out on the concertina, I found my self tapping my foot to keep time. I later tried to transcribe one of the songs, but was having trouble making the meter fit, until I realized there was a pick-up note. I went back and checked my foot-concertina accord and realized I'd been playing it with the pick-up all along (first note before my foot comes down on the one). Where I'm going with all this is that when you're in an environment where all your information is by ear, foot-tapping helps organize the tune into bars and other rythmic units. In this example my foot had supplied the bars almost subconsciously. If you've got the score, or a dedicated percussionist part of that burden is taken off. You can see or hear how the meter is going. The point being that rythmic structure is important to good playing and you can get those cues aurally or visually.

 

When I've played in ensembles there is always one person (the drummer if we have one) who keeps the time, and in this context foot-tapping not only looses its value (delimiting the meter), but can get plain distracting.

[Nigel]

I have always been rather envious of people who can play and tap their feet at the same time. I'm sure that it helps you to keep time, especially in a solo setting. It certainly looks as if you have a good understanding of the music.When I am listening, my feet tap away quite happily. However I can't play and tap my feet at the same time. It is either one or the other. It's not quite as bad as the comment about George Bush not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time, which may or may not be true - I wouldn't like to comment.

Mind you, while I was playing the other night, my foot began to make tentative movements, roughly in time. This was while I was playing a reel. If I play anything else, my feet are fixed in concrete, but reels seem to free my foot just a bit. Is there any reason for this?

 

Nigel

[Frank Edgley]

In the context of teaching the concertina,I have found that students (usually adult) are able to learn tunes more quickly if they are presented with the written music. This is because they have usually come to trad music later in life and don't already have the "music in their head." For them, learning by ear is extremely difficult, as they are not really as familiar with the idiom as someone who has grown up listening to dance-style music. When they do master a few tunes, they are usually not quite right--they lack the feel or lift to the music. This learning (dance) music initially by notation seems to produce the equivalent result as someone who learns to read English solely from books. They may say all the words in an understandable way, but it lacks the cadence of an English speaker. To really get the feel for the music (like language) it needs to come from listening to, and learning by imitation from another fluent player (or speaker.) If learning solely by "the dots", it is also difficult to tap your foot as the music has not been internalised, but is really an attempt to add it to the tune. If you "feel" the rhythm, it is difficlt to restrain yourself from doing it. Having limited experience with classical music, I cannot comment on that.

[Alan Day]

This subject for some reason makes me think of the wonderful Dave Prebble.When he plays his whole body moves to the music.

 

I agree Frank you have to feel the music,the timing is essential. My late Father was an Electric Organ player, but his timing was so bad I could never make out what he was playing.Dots help me as a guide to what I am playing,great for seeing how the next tune goes when you are playing a set of tunes. Most of the band had the first line of dots for this purpose.I have always tapped my feet in time with the music and have to take my shoes off in a recording studio and even rest my feet on a cushion.

Al

[Rod]

This subject for some reason makes me think of the wonderful Dave Prebble.When he plays his whole body moves to the music.

 

I agree Frank you have to feel the music,the timing is essential. My late Father was an Electric Organ player, but his timing was so bad I could never make out what he was playing.Dots help me as a guide to what I am playing,great for seeing how the next tune goes when you are playing a set of tunes. Most of the band had the first line of dots for this purpose.I have always tapped my feet in time with the music and have to take my shoes off in a recording studio and even rest my feet on a cushion.

Al

 

Al, if you consider audable foot-tapping to be an acceptable component of your normal performance why do you consider it to be unacceptable to do so in a recording studio ? I speak as one whose foot never taps....too much else to concentrate on ! Rod