Musicians like Michel Bordeleau of La Bottine and Olivier Demers of Le Vent du Nord make playing fiddle while tapping out syncopated rhythms look simple. Most musicians will probably find just playing while tapping a steady down beat challenge enough in the beginning.
How to Find a Tune’s Downbeat for Percussive Foot Tapping or Podorythmie
Notes along a musical staff don’t offer musicians clues to where the downbeat, or rhythmic pulse, falls. For some, feeling a tune’s rhythm comes naturally, and for others, it can be a challenge. Some attempt to tap out every eighth or quarter note, and some an irregular pattern wherever they can squeeze it in.
The key is realizing that all notes aren’t played with the same emphasis. Each measure has notes which should be given more weight or umpf. These are called downbeats.
In a 4/4 hornpipe, polka, or reel, for example, players will want to accentuate the first and third beats of each measure. In a 3/4 jig, they’ll find the pulse on the first beat of each measure. Knowing which beats to emphasize transforms a string of notes into a melody.
Musicians who learn music from standard notation may find it helpful to go through a tune and mark the notes falling on the downbeat. Taking deliberate notice of a tune’s rhythm by foot tapping and marking downbeats helps ensure accuracy for musicians prone to dropping or adding notes.
Podorythmie Exercises for Tapping Along With a Tune’s Downbeat
To get a sense of where downbeats fall, musicians can crank up a CD with some of their favorite tunes, listen, and tap. Once they’re able to maintain a steady beat, they can try singing the tune while tapping. Next, they can get their hands involved by tapping out a more complicated rhythm on their knees. These are all steps in a natural progression to develop the skill of tapping while playing an instrument.
To discover a tune’s groove, it may help to choose a familiar song and play it through over and over again. At some point, musicians may find themselves relaxed enough to allow the rhythmic pulse to drive their playing. Eventually, that pulse may work its way out to their feet.
Searching You Tube for other interpretations of a tune can also help in discovering the rhythm. It’s not hard to determine which players have found the pulse and allowed it to come through in their playing.
Developing an Internal Sense of Tempo and Rythm
It’s natural for beginning musicians to slow down or speed up as they play. Foot tapping won’t help in keeping an accurate tempo because the same sense of rhythm that slows or speeds up the playing also controls the tapping.
Rhythm, like any musical skill must be cultivated over time. Foot tapping won’t improve tempo, but it can enhance a musician’s sense of rhythm. Feeling the heavier downbeats and expressing this through tapping often helps musicians discover how to accent the correct notes in their playing.
Expressing the Rhythm in Playing and Foot Tapping
Expressing a rhythmic pulse with foot tapping is far less important than expressing it in playing. To give trad music that toe tapping drive that makes listeners want to get up and dance, a fiddler accents beats with extra umpf in the bow hand, a guitarist or mandolin player uses a down stroke with the pick, and a flautist increases the pressure of the airstream across the mouthpiece. If rhythm is also expressed in foot tapping, it should find its roots in the playing.
Foot tapping adds spice to a tune and can even energize a musician’s playing, but it shouldn’t become necessary to feeling the beat. If the music suffers when a player isn’t tapping, it’s time to work on putting more pulse in the music itself.
Readers can find related articles covering:
- Simple techniques to start foot tapping while playing an instrument,
- Foot tapping etiquette for musicians at jam sessions,
- And an introduction to Quebecois Podorythmie, the percussive foot tapping distinctive to French Canadian music.
Marcy Paulson - From the moment Marcy Paulson picked up a recorder in fourth grade music class, she was hooked. Since then, her passion for music has ...
