Alegrias foot tapping!

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Stu

Posts: 2561
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England

Alegrias foot tapping!

I've seen alot of questions about bulerias foot tapping but dont think ive seen this discussed.

After finally playing a fairly long (by my standards) Alegrias in my dance class three or four times over....my leg really ****ing hurt!

whats the norm for keeping the beat in alegrias with foot tapping...i was doing every beat and it hurts.

cheers

Stu

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 9 2010 8:23:00

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Alegrias foot tapping! (in reply to Stu)

Stu,

I feel the rhythm of the RH should be keeping you in time, while the foot goes:

**3***7,8*10**

*=silent

That seems good for me anyway..

cheers,

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 9 2010 8:31:08

srshea

Posts: 833
Joined: Oct. 29 2006
From: Olympia, WA in the Great Pacific Northwest

RE: Alegrias foot tapping! (in reply to Stu)

I’ve spent/wasted so much time fretting over all the various foot tapping protocols, and finally realized that, for me, the simplest thing is always the best.

To me the primary point of tapping your foot is to provide a simple and steady reference to play off of, so for me it’s simply every beat for the slow stuff and then every other beat for the fast stuff (tapping the first beat of ¾ time for FdH and Sevillanas would be the exception, though again that’s just a simple, steady, even pattern).

I don’t like all those “asymmetrical” tapping-the-accents patterns for bulerias, alegrias, solea por bulerias, etc. It’s much simpler to just tap the even beats. It’s straight forward and even; your foot’s always coming down on the twelve and the ten, the six, etc., and that helps as a reference for where you are in the compas at any given time; you know your foot’s always up on the three; if you’re playing with a twelve feel or a one feel you know you’re always going to be “starting” each cycle of compas on a foot tap or just after (and to me it makes it much easier to go back and forth between a one feel and a twelve feel, since those foot taps on the ten and the twelve are always there to play on or around).

I dunno. Keeping it simple and not making too big a deal out of foot tapping has proven to be the best approach for me…

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 9 2010 9:22:49

Stu

Posts: 2561
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England

RE: Alegrias foot tapping! (in reply to srshea)

i agree srshea... thats what i do normally and what ill prob do for alegrias

cheers ron, but i dont think ill be able to do that kind of tapping. but youre right my right hand does keep the beat for me.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 9 2010 13:24:35