Lap [Foot Tap] Drumming

The Colonel

The Colonel

Silver Member
We all do it. We all annoy others with it.


Public masturbation.


No! Not that! LAP DRUMMING! When I know I'm gonna be riding a train or plane I've got my headphones and I'm drumming to a bunch of my dance playlist stuff on my iPhone. Eyes are closed [most of the time] so I don't have to acknowledge the people I'm probably annoying (I do it quietly but if I'm in someone's peripheral vision and they're trying to read, they seem annoyed...) and I'm tappin' away - sometimes with a little head/upper-body sway. And silently mouthing the words to the song - if I know them - I at least like to get the choruses.

Along with just having something to do on the ride, I like doing two different approaches:

1. Finding out the exact part of the drums
2. Embellish!


This morning I was coming back from Long Beach on the train (50 minutes or so) and while lost in my little tappy tap world I was startled out of it as I was slapped on the leg by a hand that wasn't mine! I opened my eyes and there was this dude on his way off the train giving me a thumbs up and saying "yeah man". My face was probably a mix of "Thanks so much"/"I almost peed my pants..."/"...or about to take a swing at whoever was attacking me".


I assume most of us/all of us do this. What songs do you like tapping to? Any interesting stories?

My top-songs-playlist (so much fun!):

LCD Soundsystem - Yeah (Pretentious Version)
Rihanna - Umbrella, Push Up On Me
DJ Shadow - Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain
Kanye West - Stronger, Paranoid
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell
Gnarls Barkley - Run (I'm A Natural Disaster), Surprise
Hot Chip - Hold On
Journey - Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Justin Timberlake - Sexyback
Moby - Raining Again (Steve Angelio's Mix)
Modest Mouse - Spittin' Venom
Muse - Time Is Running Out
Neptunes - Hot Damn
Outkast - Ms Jackson
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Beautiful
Police - Roxanne
Tokyo Police Club - Nursery, Academy, Juno
TV On The Radio - Crying
The Who - Baby Don't You Do It, Young Man Blues
Thom Yorke - most anything on The Eraser
Radiohead - Reckoner, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, 15 Step
The Deadly Syndrome - I Hope I Become A Ghost


Just some of my favorites in my playlist.

Oh - and really getting into your lap/foot-tapping is also a great way to get people to leave you alone on the subway. No one ever bothers me. When I'm riding it without my earbuds...I ALWAYS attract the crazies...strangest dude on the train - he'll be in my car, and he'll decide to do his [amazingly crazy schtick] right next to me...always. I warn my friends when they ride with me and they are always skeptical until it happens...Unbelievable. That should be an add for headphones - Forget about the high fidelity on those things: Wanna keep crazy people from bothering you? Headphones! Tired of some scam guy talking your ear off for 10 minutes just so you can tell him you're not giving him any money? Headphones! Want to block out all of those annoying/stupid conversations that drop your IQ 10 points but you can't ever stop listening to? Headphones!


Currently listening to my buddy's band My Morning Jacket - "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream pt 2" - another great one to tap drum to.
 
Last time i lap-foot-tap-drummed I almost got thrown out from a friend of mines house.
 
No mass transportation around here, but I do always have sticks in my car. As I drive the padded dash becomes a ride cymbal to whatever is on the radio. Ususally nothing specific, but since I until recently spent so much time driving, this sure helped my right hand speed and endurance.

I'm too self conscious to "tap" in public. It got me into too much trouble from the classroom to the kitchen table when I was a kid.
 
Some of you will get a kick out of this! When I go to work, I sit behind a desk like lots of people. But what walkers by don't know is that I keep practice pedals under my desk. So i'm usually just wailin' away to my Ipod that plays on my desk when people are running around doing busy work! Some times when i'm really inspired i'll start setting up different noises on my desk and use the penicls as sticks. I use a small thing of paper clips as hi-hats, a small, thick book for a snare, and every thing else on my desk to do little fills. Lots of fun! Deffinitely bad for buisness though. I'm sure it scares the crazies away but I don't like the fact that it repels customers as well! : )
 
donv said:
I do always have sticks in my car. As I drive the padded dash becomes a ride cymbal to whatever is on the radio. Ususally nothing specific, but since I until recently spent so much time driving, this sure helped my right hand speed and endurance.
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I keep sticks in my car for the same thing! A couple of years ago my Dad brought something to my attention that I would like to share with anyone else who likes to do this. In the unlikely event of a car crash, your loose drum sticks can become very dangerous projectiles. A good place for 'em when your not using them in the car is the little pocket behind the seat. It would be metal as hell to die from a drumstick though the heart, but I think I'll do my best to prevent that from happening. : )
 
Gretsch09 said:
It would be metal as hell to die from a drumstick though the heart, but I think I'll do my best to prevent that from happening. : )
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congratulations, that is the coolest new way to die. i hope thats how i go, of course the car will also be packed with hookers and coke.

donv said:
It got me into too much trouble from the classroom to the kitchen table when I was a kid.
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holy crap did you grow up in my house! lmao, same thing here, cept now i'm grown and out of the house. when i go home to visit i'll start doing it and my entire family just stares at me like "really? you've been gone for 6 years now and you're STILL doing that?"

i'm more the kind that i do it subconsciously. i'll be sitting there drumming away, totally out of it, when someone looks at me like and says things to the effect of "man lay off that crack", or "do you have any idea how annoying that is?". my favorite is when non-drummers try to imitate my awesomeness by doing some air drumming themselves, cept they have no idea what they are doing and they look like retards have their 'special moment'.

i tap to most everything i hear, but i have some songs that get me tapping regardless the mood i'm in.

Radiohead - Elctioneering, 2+2=5
At the Drive In - Arcarsenal, One Armed Scissor, Enfilade
The Mars Volta - Drunkenship of Lanterns, Intertiatic E.S.P., Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus

oh my god i could keep listing all day, so i'll stop now.
 
So funny! Pedals under the desk :-D

My first interest in drums was while at a coed school. I was bored in class and saw a boy tapping his feet. I thought, "That looks like fun" and started quietly doing it. Forty years later I am still being annoying - and with my tapping as well!

Yes, the steering wheel is a big one; I use the blinker as a metronome.

The rails in the lifts in work's building's are hollow metal and if you can get some nice tones from them. I go crazy on it when there's no one else in there. I work high in the building and occasionally will quietly tap away during those slow trips with many stops before my floor. I wish they'd pipe Santana's Batuka or anything by Osibisa into our lifts!

Fair's fair - they annoy me by slowing my trip so I annoy them with tap tap tappidy tap :)
 
"...you've been gone for 6 years now and you're STILL doing that?"

to which I would reply, "yes, but I'm much better at it now."
 
Pollyanna said:
Yes, the steering wheel is a big one; I use the blinker as a metronome.
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haha! i use the blinker as an absurd polyrhythm against the music im playing. For me, its nearly impossible to tap to the blinker and the music simultaneously, but its a good "clock" challenge that always leaves my mind in a blur.

And i always tap...in high school i've gotten my pencils thrown out the window, ive gotten thrown out of class, i've gotten many girls to hate me (though at the same time, i've gotten many girls to like me too!), ive gotten made fun of, but who cares! not me!

I'll NEVER stop.
 
Much to my dismay, this is apparentantly a reeeeeally annoying habit that my wife just can't seem to keep reminding me about. It's funny...when I grew up playing the guitar, I found myself, soley focusing on that specific instrument, or player, and found myself analyzing the play....and drums...same thing...let me see if I can tap-that-out, and I find myself constantly thumping out rhythms. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much of an audience for it...but the desk, here by the computer, sure makes for a nice make-shift kit. Anyone seen Benny Greb's new dvd....him doing some kitchen thumping....check it out...remind you of anyone????
 
I personally think that doing this in public is annoying, and gives drummers our bad reputation that we have amongst so many people. I'm amazed at how many times I've been complimented by people I just met..."wow, you are a drummer, but you don't tap and annoy the crap out of me constantly."

With that said, I do the sticks in the car thing, and rock out on my lap/desk/anything when I'm alone.
 
I don't tap in public. I don't wear Zildjian T shirts, hats or wristbands. My licence plate doesn't say Drummer1. I don't advertise that I'm a drummer. People think drummers are Neanderthals. I was once asked, "Why do you play the drums anyway?" (In other words, why didn't you pick the guitar, which is way cooler?) I answered that I didn't pick the drums, they picked me.

I practice in solitude, on my steering wheel or in my studio. When I do gigs is when I let it out.
To each his own.
In todays society, saying that I'm a drummer is like saying I work for a traveling carnival, it doesn't impress anyone. So I keep my mouth shut.
 
I don't tap in public or wear any advertisements either, but I haven't found that people think drummers are Neanderthals...when someone finds out I play the drums they usually talk to me about it, and I talk alot about the art of drumming....and generally most are receptive to the conversation...and usually I bump into them somewhere, and they tell me about some, incredible drummer they saw at some show.
 
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Ouch! Mea culpa!

But if only you heard the sound of the lift rails at work the way I do, so sweet, almost like a marimba. It's seductive and addictive :)

People who press the &^%# button to avoid walking a single floor (and make my lift stop for two extra floors, costing me a quarter of my lunch break) when they have backsides the size of the Queen Mary and could do with the exercise deserve to be tapped at IMO *grrrrr*
 
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