foot tapping

Can anyone shed some light on the value of keeping time with your foot while you play? It seems a little awkward at first, is it worth the effort to stick with it? Thanks a lot

Topic

Keeping time with your foot can be a useful tool when it comes to keeping your hands in sync with the pulse of the song. However, it does take time to develop.

The best advice is to start simple and then work your way up. I would suggest practicing tapping your foot in quarter notes while clapping rhythms/drumming rhythms on the piano. After that becomes comfortable, try playing something repetitive, like scales, to the pulse of your foot tapping. Once that feels comfortable, you can start experimenting with some of the written material. Keep at it!

If you watch some of the great musicians of all time, they are keeping time with their foot in some way, although it’s far from being a requirement. Collin’s suggestions above are good. Also, if you feel overloaded mentally while playing all of a sudden, try stopping the foot for a second until you feel in control again. Sometimes it can develop a mind of its own, interfering with what you’re trying to play.

As both Cary and Collin suggest, tapping your foot is yet another element of playing that requires practice. You should ALWAYS practice with a metronome so tap your foot to the metronome whenever you practice. Then when you perform without a metronome you will have the coordination to tap to a steady beat.

In our videos, you might notice that Collin doesn’t always tap his feet. If you look very closely, instead of tapping his feet he actually clicks the back of his throat to keep time so his feet are free to use the pedals. It’s pretty amazing!!!