Keeping the beat

FlutieParana · Post by **FlutieParana** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:00 pm

My band director always says we have to tap our foot to keep the beat and when i do that's all i can think about and end up not paying attention to what I'm playing. Any tips?

Collin · Post by **Collin** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:16 pm

Tap your foot every time that you practice. If done enough, tapping will eventually become a habit.

Collin

embum79 · Post by **embum79** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 10:38 pm

In my opinion, tapping is not a good thing! What usually ends up happening is everyone starts tapping, no one is together, and you get even more confused. Not to mention the annoying sound of the tapping mixed with the music. Oy.

There should only be one beat, and that is the conductor... or your internal beat if you are playing alone.... or a metronome. You have to develop the knack of keeping "one eye" on the conductor and the other on the music. This involves using your peripheral vision along with looking up at the conductor every couple of seconds.. as much as possible, in fact! This is why it's good to practice your music.. even memorize parts of it, so your eyes don't have to be buried in your music all the time. The conductor is really the glue of the whole ensemble.

If you want to develop your internal beat, and you think you're having trouble with it, use your metronome often while practicing. You can't go wrong. You will eventually get better at keeping the beat without it.

Hope that helps... just my 2 cents!