Hello, how you doin'?
It's Justin here again.
And this time I'm gonna teach you how to tap your foot.
Which, kind of really sounds funny to me to
even say that I'm gonna teach someone
how to tap their foot.
Because it should be the most rudimentry,
most ridiculously easy thing ever known to mankind.
Only it isn't.
So, what do I need to tell you about tapping your foot.
Well, first of all, tapping your foot is really important,
cause it kind of locks you into the rhythm,
and especially if you're playing in a band or whatever,
or if you're playing with yourself,
keeping rhythm is really, really important,
it's probably the most important thing you can be doing
while you're playing,
other than getting kind of all the notes right.
So, obviously developing some sort of
strong rhythmic feeling is
really important.
So, tapping your foot is important,
on a, if you like, a musically spiritual level.
God, that makes me sound like a hippie,
but just it makes, it gives you the feeling,
gets your body moving, part of your body
is feeling the pulse of the music.
And one thing that you can definately do,
which it doesn't matter how you tap your foot,
but a really good excercise is to just tap your foot all the time
when you listen to music.
As soon as there's music on,
whether you're in a car,
or on the bus, or listening to your iPod on the tube,
or whatever
you should be trying to tap your foot along all the time.
Really, really important.
Probably not tapping your foot that's on the accelerator,
if you're driving a car,
that could be a little hazardous, but otherwise
you should always be trying to tap your foot.
Now, I'm also gonna give you a few hints
on exactly how to tap your foot,
because it's amazing, the problems that can happen
if you just don't think of the consequences in the way you tap your foot.
So, the first thing is, which foot you're gonna tap.
Now, if your guitar is sitting here,
it's sitting down on my right leg.
Yeah?
So if I'm sitting on a seat, I know right now I'm sitting on the floor,
so right now tappping my foot doesn't make any difference,
but if I was sitting up on a chair,
and I'd tap the foot that's connected to this,
my right foot, then it's gonna be
bumping my guitar up and down like this
every time I tap my foot.
So, probably, it would be a lot better idea
for me to tap my left foot, than it would be my right.
If you're left handed, you probably want to be tapping your right foot.
So, the foot that you're gonna tap is the one
that the guitar is not sitting on.
If your guitar is sitting on your right leg,
then you're gonna tap your left foot.
Seems really simple, but it makes a really big difference.
Now, some people don't like doing that.
I've come across people before,
students, personal students that I've known,
private students
that were not good with tapping their left foot,
cause it kinda feels weird.
Now, if that's you and you don't feel
like you can tap your left foot,
and you really wanna your right,
Then you have to tap with your toes,
and not your heel.
Now, if you do that, it tends to feel
a little bit awkward,
and for me it's not as solid as feeling of tapping,
but it's the only way around it,
or you tap your toes inside your shoe.
Which, it means that other people wouldn't be able
to see that you're tapping your foot.
But it doesnt' matter,
really, you're tapping your foot for you.
Now just to demonstate these things,
I'm gonna go to a quick stand-up
with me sitting on my sofa over there,
so you can see the results,
the way that you should be able to tap your foot.
Particularly with the toe tap,
cause it's a little bit unusual.
So let's go and have a quick look at that.
OK, so what I just want you to have a look at:
First of all, is the effect that
if I tap my left foot, my guitar stays still,
no matter how or what I do with my left foot,
it's all cool.
But with my right foot, as soon as I tap that,
the guitar body is jumping up and down,
I don't know if you can see the headstock,
in the shot or not, but it's jumping.
Now, if I'm trying to change chords like that,
it ain't gonna work.
And now, if you just have a look at the close-up
of my foot there, you can see,
if I'm using the heel,
which is how a lot of people like to tap,
that's what's moving my whole leg,
whereas if I just tap with my toes,
the rest of the top part of my leg doesn't move at all,
so it's definately much better for you to,
if you wanna use your right leg,
use your toes to tap, not your heel.
Or, even more preferably,
just use your left foot,
cause then you can tap with your toe,
or your heel, or however you like.
Also, the alternative,
if you look closely at my foot there,
You see, if I just tap with my toes, inside my shoe,
you can kind of see my shoe moving a little bit,
but it doesn't really matter.
And it's enough for you to get your vibe,
and you can quite comfortably tap away like that
inside your shoe.
Even like this, now I'm tapping my foot,
and you probably can't even see it.
OK, so now I didn't go to the sofa, right.
I went to the chair, cause
we couldn't get the camera,
to be in shot properly with the sofa,
it was all a little bit weird.
So, apologies for these of you
who were expecting to see me sitting on the sofa then,
and then saw me sitting on a chair,
it must have been very shocking.
Anyway, not as shocking as the riduculousness
of me trying to teach you how to tap your feet.
I still think that's a really funny concept.
But, I'm amazed at the amount of times
I've taught people how to tap their foot properly.
It's, so that's one,
I'm trying to teach you this, and I know it sounds funny,
and you're probably just gonna leave all sorts of
ridiculously horrible comments about me on youtube.
So, I'm doing it for your own good,
I'm trying to help you out here.
So, first of all, make sure you tap your foot now
all the time, along with any music any time you hear music,
or you're playing music, try to tap your foot along.
Especially, would it be a great thing to
go through some of the chord sequences,
either from stage one
or from this stage,
and start going through it as you're playing them,
put your metronome on at, let's say 60 BPM,
click, and get your foot going, and your downstrum
all at the same time.
So, metronome, your friend the metronome,
at, say 60 BPM,
and actually this is not gonna work out very well,
because I'm just gonna have to keep talking for a second
while I adjust it, because it's all on a funny setting.
So, metronome, it's 60 BPM here,
turn the volume up a little so you can hear it,
then you'll be tapping your foot,
tap, tap, tap,
and then you'll be strumming,
. . .
downstrums at the same time.
. . .
Now, I'm tapping my knee, that's an
especially advanced move.
A kneetap,
you don't wanna get into doing a kneetap yet.
right?
. . .
But this the idea.
What I want you to do is
have the metronome, your downstrum and your foot
all going at the same time.
If you spend a little bit of time on that,
I know it seems a bit riduculous me saying this now,
but it will make a huge difference to how well you
pick up your rhythm guitar in the next stage.
So, please, have a bit of a go at that,
when you can stop laughing at me.
And, erm, I should see you for another lesson very soon.