I am fairly new to this and I am trying to record self playing acoustic guitar and I just cannot seem to stop my self thumping away with my foot, its ruining recordings. Any ideas?



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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

Hearing yourself doing it is probably the best incentive to stop doing it. You need physically to practice not tapping your foot - try moving your toe inside your shoe instead, which will be silent, then move on to internalising the rhythm, which is of course what we all should be doing in the first place. It drives me mad when I hear it in bands I conduct, especially as it's usually the people who can't keep time that do it the loudest.

To get used to the idea of moving your toe rather than your whole foot, practice whenever you hear music on the telly or wherever - it's invisible to anyone else so you won't upset anybody. When you've done this, move on to visualising (auralising?) the beat in your head. I found the second step easier than the first.

Play in socks on a thick sheepskin rug?

Put foam pads under the mic stand's feet. Use a suspension shockmount on the mic itself. Engage a high pass filter on the mic and/or the desk at about 80Hz.

Or discuss bondage solutions with your partner.

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Dynamite with a laser beam...

Quote Steve Hill:

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Or discuss bondage solutions with your partner.

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I followed this advice and my partner came up with an ingenious solution, she placed drawing pins through my rug and suggested I play barefoot


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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

Put something inside your shoe, under the sole of the offending foot. Like a small stone, for example.

It can vary from a subtle reminder, to a severe punishment, depending on the size and sharpness of the object.

If that doesn't work, then try the drawing pin...

Mic up your foot and use it as part of the recording.

Araldite

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"It's not pretty, also you can't dance to it." - Frank Zappa
www.bluelizardstudio.com

Sit on the floor.

Anti personnel mine

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www.jackruston.com

Yup beginning to regret this

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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

Stick your foot in a sound proof box filled with jelly! OK maybe not the jelly, that's just my personal choice.



Said to much methinks, time to leave.

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I have a very special mic placement for stroppy divas.

1 nail, 1 hammer, job done.

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if you don't know who i am, i aint gonna tell you.

Now you lot have solved that one, how do you stop a singer jigging around in front of the mic?

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It wasn't me!
(Well, actually, it probably was)

Learn to stomp in time, so the sound will later be obscured by your poundingi drum track ?

Quote tacitus:

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Hearing yourself doing it is probably the best incentive to stop doing it. You need physically to practice not tapping your foot - try moving your toe inside your shoe instead, which will be silent, then move on to internalising the rhythm, which is of course what we all should be doing in the first place. It drives me mad when I hear it in bands I conduct, especially as it's usually the people who can't keep time that do it the loudest.

To get used to the idea of moving your toe rather than your whole foot, practice whenever you hear music on the telly or wherever - it's invisible to anyone else so you won't upset anybody. When you've done this, move on to visualising (auralising?) the beat in your head. I found the second step easier than the first.

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This was a really decent bit of advice btw...before the rest of us started making 'helpful' comments

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www.jackruston.com

Quote Mowens800:

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Mic up your foot and use it as part of the recording.

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Some of my favourite Chess recordings mike up feet.

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I am the Walrus.

The technical term for advanced foot tapping is podorythmy which is very popular in French reels.

If you keep at it you could be as good as this... Reel et podorythmie

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I have a very special mic placement for stroppy divas.

Presuming you're sitting to play - have you tried a footrest? Putting some more tension in your leg will make it more difficult to 'tap'

... or is it the other leg??!! Maybe a foot rest there would help!

(You won't believe this, but as I type "Foot-Tapper" is playing on the radio!)

Well, even though I gave the 'decent bit of advice', the other posts have been a lot more fun.

As for the problem of singers jigging around in front of the mic, they need my new device, launching next April 1st, that only shocks you when you let go of it.

Somebody will now tell me you can do that, anyway.

I used to have a great chair that was high and had a kind or rail round the base to rest your feet on. bit like a bar stool (spent toooo long on they) it was a bit hard though

The fun is great in this thread and there are some good bits of advice too, and I will try some of these out

I wonder what is the ideal guitar playing seat

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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

http://tinyurl.com/8juzh

Quote Exalted Wombat:

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http://tinyurl.com/8juzh

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Imagine the ground loop

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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

Now, if each leg had different impedance to ground, a differential current could flow up one leg, down the other, causing the b*****ks to explode....excuse me, I must go and lie down for a bit...over-excitement, you know...

I'm feeling a bit guilty for not giving a sensible solution to your problem, so here it is.

Use a thick, plush cushion or pillow under your foot.


I feel so much better now.

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I have a very special mic placement for stroppy divas.

Some alternatives........

Keep your toe on the floor but raise your leg up and down to the rythm.
Also some head banging as an alternative to leg tapping to the groove..
Dance your body to the beat instead....
Try putting a tambourine or cowbell 4/4 on the beat in the track as a guide.....Then take it out once you have recorded the guitar.....
Or leave a bit in according to the track...............

Quote inderface:

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Some alternatives........

Keep your toe on the floor but raise your leg up and down to the rythm.
Also some head banging as an alternative to leg tapping to the groove..
Dance your body to the beat instead....
Try putting a tambourine or cowbell 4/4 on the beat in the track as a guide.....Then take it out once you have recorded the guitar.....
Or leave a bit in according to the track...............

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Or (quite seriously) strap the tambourine to your leg. You'll soon learn to keep it still. And this is really a problem that should be simply cured at source.

You could always make a feature of it, like Spiers & Boden who actually mic up Jon Boden's foot.

CC

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Put the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

Quote DAGGILARR:

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...I wonder what is the ideal guitar playing seat

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A bar stool at the bar.

Andy

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When the going gets weird, the Weird turn Pro.

Quote tacitus:

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try moving your toe inside your shoe instead, which will be silent, then move on to internalising the rhythm, which is of course what we all should be doing in the first place. It drives me mad when I hear it in bands I conduct, especially as it's usually the people who can't keep time that do it the loudest.

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I have to disagree that it is somehow bad form to keep time by tapping your foot. It's common practice amongst musicians of all genres.

It will be very low frequency, and will be mostly filtered out by eq if you are sitting the guitar in a mix. even if not, if you use a rug or something so only low frequencies are generated, it becomes "rumble" that can be filtered out without affecting the guitar recording.

I have suffered from this, but worse, just general noises that come from moving the hands on the guitar, or clothes rubbing against the guitar, or breathing noises etc. Generate much higher frequency noise that is more difficult to deal with.

Bruce Swedien recorded MJ's feet and added to the mix to deal with this problem, so that can't be bad advice.

I have had good success previously with 12cm thick, high density foam tiles like those from Studiospares, the quality ones not the cheap ones.

or...

Gaffer your foot down,lol.

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Mastering online mastering

I have to insist that audible foot tapping is bad form. You can hear it and it's not part of the music (except very occasionally). And even musicians who keep good time often tap their foot out of time. How can this be a good thing?

Well heres a thing!
http://www.log-jam.co.uk/Mk1-video.html

And check this out about 2.14 in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNZL7GkqeRI&feature=related

Bit of foot stompin goin on

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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

Quote inderface:

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Some alternatives........

Keep your toe[s] on the floor

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That's what I usually do (if I can't make myself stop): perch on the edge of the chair with both sets of toes on the floor and both heels up in the air. Works for me

Quote Max!:

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1 nail, 1 hammer, job done.

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Reminds me of the old joke: How do you torture a Scotsman? Nail his shoes to the floor and then play him a Jimmy Shand record!

R.

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Ruaridh (Pronounced "Rory").
Cubase 5 AMD Athlon X2 64 5200+. 2 Gig RAM. 2x7,200 IDE drives. Windows XP home sp2. Terratec EWS 88 MT. Guitars, Marshall Amps, Beer.

Quote DAGGILARR:

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Well heres a thing!
http://www.log-jam.co.uk/Mk1-video.html

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Well, apart from the fact that Jon Boden's is home-made, that's what he does. Can be very effective (but I expect that like anything else, it takes practice to sound decent).

CC

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Put the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

Yeah, if the foot-stamping is part of the act, fine. But keys are part of my act and if I couldn't stop and start playing the piano exactly when I wanted to the audience probably wouldn't think much of it ...

KICK THE HABIT! (pun sort of intended ... )

Quote tacitus:

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I have to insist that audible foot tapping is bad form. You can hear it and it's not part of the music (except very occasionally). And even musicians who keep good time often tap their foot out of time. How can this be a good thing?

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Well to be fair, most of the time you can't hear it, especially in amplified music.

However, if I was recording an acoustic guitarist who habitually kept time with his foot, then I'd investigate ways to silence the noise like thick rugs etc.

I'd rather have the musician get into the zone and do their thing rather than have him spend all his mental energy on stopping his foot tapping.

Try getting one of those stomp box yolks, the ones with the piezeo pickups inthem, make it part of the performance, didn't... I can't remember...played on the Bands DVD...anyway, tapped his foot and thousands of people stompin away with him!

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"Insert witty snippet about my music" - http://soundcloud.com/realisms/sets/realisms-e-p/

I had a similar problem with whistling. I just couldn't seem to stop myself. So I asked a trusted friend, who had never heard of such a problem before but said he would think about it. He phoned me back five minutes later and said "OK I've thought about it. You're just going to have to stop it". And I did! Got over it right away. Mind you, he is a bit 'Zen' like...

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Strictly project and just for fun

Quote Max!:

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1 nail, 1 hammer, job done.

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Samplecraze
Stretch That Note