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Author Topic: Foot percussion  (Read 12122 times)

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Matthew B

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Foot percussion
« on: May 20, 2008, 07:39:54 PM »

Anyone out there using Franco-American (Quebecois, French, Canadian, Acadian . . . .) foot percussion.  I can tap my foot just fine, but that powerhouse floor-whacking is beyond me.  These guys use the shoe as a whole new instrument.  Any advice beyond "practice practice" on addressing:
1.  Not enough noise
2.  Foot "walks" across the floor over time
3.  How to choose: one foot, two feet, heel & toe, heel or toe, or all of them.
I know fiddlers who do this pretty well, and it looks like they're sitting down, and yet running in place.  The only box player I've seen doing the foot thing at length is Benoit Borque, but he's a professional step-dancer and spoon player as well as accordionista, so he has a bit of head start. 
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Bill Young

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Re: Foot percussion
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2008, 09:03:15 PM »

Anyone out there using Franco-American (Quebecois, French, Canadian, Acadian . . . .) foot percussion.  I can tap my foot just fine, but that powerhouse floor-whacking is beyond me.  These guys use the shoe as a whole new instrument.  Any advice beyond "practice practice" on addressing:
1.  Not enough noise
2.  Foot "walks" across the floor over time
3.  How to choose: one foot, two feet, heel & toe, heel or toe, or all of them.
I know fiddlers who do this pretty well, and it looks like they're sitting down, and yet running in place.  The only box player I've seen doing the foot thing at length is Benoit Borque, but he's a professional step-dancer and spoon player as well as accordionista, so he has a bit of head start. 


Saw/heard a fiddle player in "Le Vent Du Nord" playing this "Quebec drum" last year. Very effective and entertaining. He was seated, used both feet on what looked like a sheet of plywood laid on the stage (thus taking care of the volume), and could possibly have had reinforced shoes - tap dancer's?
I imagine the novelty might wear off in time.
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Ebor_fiddler

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Re: Foot percussion
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2008, 09:46:52 PM »

I went on an American dance course a couple of weeks ago at Halsway Manor and there were a few guys there making a tremendous sound just stamping their feet. Enquiring, I found they were using tapshoes - and am rather fancying a pair myself!
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sCANdanADIAN

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Re: Foot percussion
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2008, 10:23:32 PM »

I think you have to start learning this technique from a young age,kind of like learning a new language. ;D

Steve Jones once described the novelty as not so much wearing off but beating you into submission.

Chris
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Québécois

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Re: Foot percussion
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2008, 10:41:04 PM »

In Qu�bec we call them "tapeux de pieds"! (feet tappers).

You have to sit on a good old-fashioned wooden kitchen chair (without arms), use shoes with a hard sole (leather is best) tap-dancing shoes can work but I prefer military-style hard shoes or something similar, with a metal piece on the heel. I use a 3/4-inch hardwood plywood board, about 18x18 inches or larger. This usually produces a good sound. Most players who only play footwork will grab the front of the chair's seat with their hands and use this to keep their thighs in position, and also give some "traction" to their legs.

The toe and heel thing is not difficult to do. To start with something simple, take a 4/4 beat. The left foot will be "floating" and the right foot's heel stays on the floor while the toe will tap.

The pattern should sound like "TAC_A_TAC  TAC_A_TAC  TAC_A_TAC".

beat 1 - left foot toe (heel in the air)
beat 2 - right foot toe tap
beat 3 - left foot heel
beat 4 - no sound
 
The left leg also does a little movement to the front when tapping the heel, then towards the back when doing the toe.

Practice this then play a tune and accompany with the feet, when you get the knack of it you can add "ornaments" with fill-ins from the right toe.

When you get good you can get patterns done with both feet using toe and heel shots.

If it's not working well try switching the left and right feet in the instructions.

Have fun!

 
« Last Edit: September 07, 2014, 12:14:31 AM by Clive Williams »
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sCANdanADIAN

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Re: Foot percussion
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2008, 12:16:25 AM »

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Stiamh

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Re: Foot percussion
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2008, 04:01:50 AM »

Matthew, offhand I can't think of a one-row box player up here who isn't an inveterate "tapeux de pieds". BTW if you want a fancier name for it, the local trad music and dance society (the SPDTQ) offers classes in "podorythmie" !   

LOL, don't remember saying that Chris but I certainly find it gets a bit much after a while. Some people do surprisingly subtle things with it though, usually the hand-sitters not playing an instrument that Fran�ois mentioned. In general useful as a cardio workout, needs considerable physical stamina!



« Last Edit: September 07, 2014, 12:14:41 AM by Clive Williams »
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mikesamwild

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Re: Foot percussion
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2008, 09:42:54 AM »

I remember Chris Wood the singer and fiddler coming to our club The Hefts and Blades in Sheffield in the early 90s and knocking us out with his seated playing of French Canadian tunes with tap of the feet, he just had leather soled shoes or boots. The landlord down below in the bar told me to 'keep it down' which was great considering his jukebox often ruined a sensitive ballad as the bass came through a steel beam!
I got my head round the basics when playing the box but most pubs I played in had carpet and it seemed a bit pretentious to take a piece of plywood  along.
Fagan's back room in Sheffield has old brown lino so no problem, but it can get a bit much if overdone, good for the odd reel though.
I have seen players in Connemara who use the old flat foot step dance shuffles whilst playing the one row melodeon, one man band style . There's a nice picture on the sleeve of Paddy in the Smoke of some old boys outside a pub in London ding this style  I wonder how much interchange there was between communities in North America.
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Andy Next Tune

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Re: Foot percussion
« Reply #8 on: May 23, 2008, 06:21:32 PM »

I seem to remember Pete Coe doing some flat foot shuffling while playing in the MAW concert a couple of years ago.

Andy
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Matthew B

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Re: Foot percussion
« Reply #9 on: May 25, 2008, 01:35:57 AM »

Thanks friends, most informative.  Fear not: I wasn't planning to master the art of foot tapping and then use it for every single tune.  But some of those Quebec tunes sound just great with the rat-a-tat-tat going on behind the notes.  Francois: I've a pair of those old military shoes, so that's all set.  Now I have to get a handle on managing the one-row while it bounces up and down on my left knee (finally I understand the purpose of a thumb strap).  And following your directions (I have been doing so by using the same reading method employed by Ralph the piano playing dog on the Muppet Show) I'm getting quite a workout for the left leg.  At the moment it goes TAC-A-TAC . . . . . TAC-A. . . . . . -TAC TAC-ATACATac...a-tac-TAC-a-TAC . . . . . "ouch!"
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Québécois

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Re: Foot percussion
« Reply #10 on: May 26, 2008, 02:40:50 PM »

You can inverse the feet positions to have the right foot do the part that needs moving the leg and keep the 1-row stable. Keep practicing! Sounds good do far.
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Lars

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Re: Foot percussion
« Reply #11 on: June 08, 2008, 10:40:19 PM »

Hmm... I tried what quebecois said, but I've never seen/heard that pattern before. Yours seems to go 1-2-3-break-1-2-3-break. The one I uses, and have most often seen is 1-break-3-4-1-break-3-4.

It took me weeks to get it right, but I learned this trick.

Start with your right foot. Just stomp it like you use to. 1. 1. 1. 1. Same speed as a piano player would vamp the bass.
Then try doing it just with the heel a few inches away from where you normally would.
Then make an "off-beat" in between with the toe of the same (right) foot. This will make your foot almost 'swing' forward and backwards, as you'll be most relaxed when the tap from toe and heel are almost at the same place on the floor.
Then imagine a fast rythm saying 1-2-3-4, where the heel is 1, and the toe is 3.
Then tap the other foot on 4, giving you the 1-break-3-4-1-break-3-4 feeling.

Complicated? Yep. But doing it this way will limit the 'action' of the left leg, where most of us are likely to place our box:)
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