Keeping Time and Foot Tapping at Higher Tempos

[Jack]

This is mainly a mechanics question, but one I feel is critically important for me and would appreciate learnings from those who have walked this path before me . . . when I first start learning a song, I find it much easier to tap my foot to the quarter note (helps me insure timing and respective pick direction). Then when my timing improves and I'm able to increase the tempo, at some point tapping on every other beat becomes a necessity (giving the feel of clapping to a song). The problem I find is the transition to packing four 1/8 notes to each tap does not provide the "natural feel" quarter note tapping provides. Is this the mechanics of "growth" everyone progresses through when learning a new song and, if so, does the transition from every beat to every other beat eventually seem easy and normal? All comments are greatly appreciated.

[Oldjock]

I agree with you Jack. I also prefer to tap my foot and keep the beat going in my mind. The use of the "nome" for me was difficult to get the hang of. It always seemed that I was racing to match the beat, after slowing the "nome" I was slowing down too much. Just never could get comfortable with that little beast.

At the start of learning a song, I find a You Tube video and watch it a few times to get the feel of the song. Then I try to learn the parts of the song in sections. Once I'm comfortable with the individual sections, everything goes together. Again, the beat is in my mind and foot, slow and steady, then speeding up to the songs bpm. I find that keeping the steady tempo throughout the entire song is difficult.

Henk