Today I wanted to share with you a couple apps that are so handy (and FREE) for teaching tap students. They are simple to use and tons of high level tappers and teachers are using them already on the daily - so now you can too!
When I teach tap, I like to split my time between dancing to music and a cappella. Turning down the tunes for a portion of class allows the students to hear their own sounds and learn to keep a steady rhythm based on the way they sound together (solo totally works too though). As any tap teacher with a lick of experience knows, there is a strong tendency to speed up. At first they’re claiming it’s all too fast and then within a few weeks they’re plowing through like Speed Racer.
Apps like Pulse by Seth Radman and The Metronome by Soundbrenner keep a steady tempo at whatever pace and time signature you set, and dancers can use that to fall back into the pocket of the music - which is a nice change from you having to stomp your feet, or clap your hands raw, or yell counts at the top of your lungs. Thank goodness. Don’t get me wrong, I still do that too… but I can do it less with these handy guys.
Pulse has awesome options that allow you to select from a large range of time signatures, choose if you want a noise on the quarter notes, eighths and so on, select from a variety of sounds (more cowbell anyone?), even upload a specific song and have it ticking right along to it! You can also assign colors to different beats so there’s a visual cue between downbeats, upbeats, etc, which is really cool for visual learners.
The Metronome does a lot of the same things Pulse does but instead of getting a colored ring on the beat, icons flash on the screen to show you which note of the measure you’re on. Plus, you can elect to have it play continuously, over just a bar, or a specified length of time. It also features a library to upload songs, packs tons of time signatures and some sophisticated settings - including a count-in feature and an option to just shake your device to get back to whatever you set for your standard rhythm. That’s pretty cool.
Also, since we're chatting, I know it can be fun to just get into the musical groove and tap away, but if you’re not pressing pause every once in awhile to focus on actually counting out sounds, you’re doing your dancers a disservice. Taps are their own musical instruments, played by the pitter-pattering feet of their owners. If you’ve ever played an instrument in band, orchestra, recreationally… you know counting music is ESSENTIAL. Whether you choose to go by 8s, or 4s (my preference for tap since 4 beats per measure is the most common time signature), or 3s and 6s if you’re mixing it up, make sure they can not only do a waltz clog but count a waltz clog. They need a working knowledge of quarter notes, eighths, sixteenths, what it means to swing the rhythm… I’m getting carried away. I could go on and on but that’s a whole other post (or 10).
Honestly, you don’t have to be teaching tap to find uses for these. I'm sure every dance teacher out there could use a helping hand to keep the beat. FYI, both apps have a built in bpm finder so if you’re big into editing music (and I edit A LOT), you can match and adjust songs in your mix so things flow together seamlessly. Now, all you need is storage space left on your phone since, if it’s anything like mine, it’s loaded with songs, pictures, and slow-mo videos of dancers training technique and drilling acro tricks.
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