For those of us who have been Tapping in TSTO for more than half a decade, the concept of living in a “Tap Free Zone” is unthinkable! And yet, when it comes to other forms of tapping, there are those of us who have spent a lifetime seeking places to tap…away from those who despise the sound.
When I was growing up, I knew who these harbingers of “Anti-Tapping” were, and did my best to avoid them. But it was hard…
I grew up tapping…and banging…and pounding…and for someone who has “tapping in their soul,” avoiding the anti-tappers was far more difficult than it may seem.
As it turns out, “Anti-Tappers” may in fact be clinically incapable of liking tapping. And while I just thought my Mom, most of my teachers, and several friends and relatives simply hated my constant tapping, it turns out they may have actually had ” a condition.”
It wasn’t until the year 2000 (shortly after the madness of Y2k), that the condition (some would call it a disease) was proposed. And goodness…if it is deemed a true Psychiatric Condition…we HAVE to give the Anti-Tappers a bit of leeway in life. Right?
Or are we just enabling Anti-Tapping behavior? Don’t ask my wife… she claims to be a bona-fied sufferer of Misopohonia, the dread “Anti-Tapping” disease.
Don’t believe it’s real? Read on…
Here is the WIKI info on this horrible disease. (horrible for both the sufferer and the tapper) In short, it is described as “Misophonia, literally “hatred of sound”, and was proposed in 2000 as a condition in which negative emotions, thoughts, and physical reactions are triggered by specific sounds.”
Which sounds does my wife hate?
The list is long…but, the two main offenders in a life of 38 years of coping with me include, whistling, or tapping.
The whistling thing is no big deal. I can keep my whistling to when I am alone in the car. But, tapping alone in the car can get you arrested in some states.
The fact is, as a musician, who plays a wide variety of instruments, including drums and all sorts of other percussion instruments, I hear rhythm in almost everything. I have long ago realized that tapping on the steering wheel when a great song comes on is something that I can’t control. In almost any vehicle I drive, I figure out immediately what tones can be had from different parts of the wheel, and the casing around the wheel. And learning to “chair dance” while driving was a talent I honed over my almost 50 years of driving (much to the amusement of my children, and disdain of my wife).
But, it simply can’t happen for long, when Mrs. Miller is in the car.
She explains that as a grade school teacher, she hears noises, sounds, taps, and squeaks all day long. When she is on her own, she wants a “Tap Free Zone.” I get it. I really do. And, I do my best to appease her.
After all, I have seen how she gets when the neighbor uses the leaf blower, or even worse his chain saw. I have watched her hunt down a random rattle from the washing machine, or dryer, or close every window in the house when any road work is taking place within miles.
It’s just something that I have learned to live with.
So, when I met a “Professional Tapper” (Chafic Saad) at the wedding of my niece, and told him that I lived with an “Anti-Tapper” in a “Tap Free Zone,” he was appalled. He did that look that dogs do when you make a humming/whistling noise while holding your hand up. His head cocked…his eyes winced…and his body froze. The concept of a “No Tap Zone” was clearly inconceivable to him.
Once I found out that he and his beautiful and talented soul-mate, Kris, were both former members of the touring company of “STOMP!” I was like a street meth-maker meeting Walter White for the first time. (If you aren’t familiar with “Breaking Bad” look it up).
I turned into a complete “fan boy” trying to get the secrets of Stomp clapping out of him, or trying to lure him into an impromptu Stomp mini-clinic.
It didn’t take much.
As we were loading items into the car to be hauled up the mountain (the wedding was in Alaska at a ski lodge, on a former missile site, up 6 miles of dusty road), I started tapping jars as we were carrying them out. In True Tapper Form, he grabbed a few random items, and started Tapping…
As it turns out, he met his “Co-Tapper In Life” Krista Lee, while touring with “STOMP” and after receiving a “Stomp-Ending Injury” (due to over-zealous feet-strapped-to-garbage-cans-stomping), he and Krista moved to Austin, and formed a few ventures, including a video production company and another performing/teaching company that focuses on education through rhythm and motion. They make music, art, videos, and all sorts of other amazing creative things together.
Where can tapping take you besides world tours with “Stomp?” Apparently on trans-world journeys, shooting video for companies like Google, or producing “first time ever” co-mingling, cross-cultural, award-winning videos in Bali.
What drives these types of people? The need to create. In fact, they self-labeled their particular brand of humans, “Creatives.” And I admit to finally, after more than 60+ years, finding a label that made sense for myself. Creatives create…because they have to. Just like tappers.
As these folks have shown, when it comes to being creative, it’s not about the money or other tangible rewards, it’s the mere act of doing. Creating comes in so many forms, that it is important to understand that like every great piece of music, no part can be ruled out as less important than another.
Poly-rhythm is built with layer upon layer of seemingly disparate rhythms…that when put together, create a whole, far more amazing, complex and beautiful than the singular parts.
This older vid shows how many ways you can “play with your body” in public, and not get arrested!
I implore all of you “anti-tappers” out there (including you, Mrs. Miller), to do your best to put up with at least a degree of tapping noise in the world. There is no way to know if the tapper you are scolding, may be creating the next beat that makes it onto the stage, or as a backtrack to a viral video, or hit record.
Yes. You may have an affliction that can be labeled as a disease. But, I strongly believe that part of your “healing process” may be in learning to tap. How can you hate tapping, if YOU are doing the tapping???
Let’s face it. When it comes to tapping…the rhythm of the soul comes from a variety of places. But in the end…we are more than tappers…we are people. And without “creatives” and tappers, the world would be a far more boring place to be.
I definitely function better with a little rhythm / music in the background (preferably not elevator music – lol); which can lead to me either singing along, or tapping along with a stylus (even having music playing helps you fall asleep).
Whether or not this is equivalent to “White Noise” is also true to the fact it’s the opposite of those who prefer complete silence. I’m not bagging on those who prefer silence, although that reminds me of a different era (some of you might remember that teacher from your childhood who would scream “silence” while holding a cane with authority – like Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”) no longer present.
I do pay attention to the change of music in this Game App (Halloween and Christmas tend to feature the best background music). I guess that’s why I preferred having a separate screen for Krustyland – different music, different sound effects. I sort of want a safari sound to come from the Zoo (wishful thinking).
What a great text. I am also a tapper and a lot of people around me tell me to stop or ask me if i am nervous about something. But the truth is it relaxes me. And so i tap whenever and wherever i can. Never stop the tapping.
Also: for quieter clicking or tapping the Fidget Cube (originally on kickstarter now available widely at Walmart) is amazing…I bought 2 on KS one for me one for my sis. She still takes hers everywhere…mine helped me quit nail biting and other tapping annoyingly for awhile…
Ermagerd yesssss…..
Foot tapping, tapping on my desk, steering wheel drumming, etc…sooo guilty….
I actually found a new one recently, I’ll have to record it and send it to you sometime Patric because it’s incredible to me….So we had to get a new car this year and got a 2009 Camry. It’s got the center console with the storage arm rest….I have found that the ‘click’ that the lever to open this arm rest storage compartment combined with different amounts of pressure used to quickly open and close causing it to ‘click closed’ can be made into different rhythms that make me just entranced….so I find myself frequently playing with the center console armrest a lot! I’ll get a recording a d email it to you if you’d like!
HIlarious,,,,and yes…got see it.
I’m definitely a tapper. The problem is it bothers me when someone else is tapping, or clicking a pen, humming, or making noises. My son is also a tapper and often when I’m telling him to stop my wife says you are doing the same thing. The struggle is real.
ok…So that’s where cooperative tapping has to come into play. Break down some parts…your son plays one…you play the other. Your wife goes nuts… right??
No I pull the old management technique “We are talking about him, not me.” 😂
LOL!
Thank you everyone on TSTOADDICS for everything you do!!!
Never thought if it that way but lol I am a tapper, foot tapper and whistler, need some kind of background noise to function, radio on when I sleep, when I wake up, at work, in the car, 50s and 60s are best, the sound of the instruments become clear, great post once again, better than last week’s lol
Thanks! I think…
There’s a name for people who can’t stand noises.. it’s called Hyperacusis. Hi, my name is Tippie, and I’m Hyperacusis. (Hi Tippie!) If you want to drive me insane, you’ll whistle, jingle the change in your pocket, smack your gum or chew on ice. A guy in my office used to cut his fingernails at his desk (I know.. gross).. the “click, click, click” of the nail clipper made me want to strangle him. On top of that.. I worked in a noisy newsroom, and it drove me CRAZY! The invention of the iPod was my salvation. I would pop in my earphones and play some classical or New Age music. It was only then, that I would be able to write my stories.
Lol! Deb loses her mind when I chew ice.
Omg, I have this.
Unrelated, Older members, what is the worst event you have been in, and why?
Easter. Because it was broken in multiple ways.
The stupid swapper baskets were glitched and didn’t always work. When they did work, there wasn’t a confirmation, so you could end up giving away eggs you didn’t want to give away. And basket drops stopped entirely at one point until you got the giant fabrege egg, which could take weeks to randomly drop for some people. (EA claimed this wasn’t a thing. It was definitely a thing. Multiple people confirmed no baskets until they found the stupid egg. Myself included. It took me nine days.)
The random mystery box method of earning prizes meant that not all prizes could be earned without spending an obscene number of donuts. Devoted grinding wasn’t enough, believe you me. I set alarms for that event. I played every four hours without fail, and came out of it missing two out of three characters, one of two buildings, and one of two NPCs.
One of the possible random box prizes was a few sections of fencing. I couldn’t get as much as I needed for certain designs, and at the same time I cursed every time I got fencing instead of one of the buildings or characters. Other little decorations were also in there, and I got too many of some and not enough of others, because the color of the eggs determined the possible prizes, and everyone got more of one or the other. Oh, plus there were gold eggs for the really good prizes and I think you had to win those out of either the pink or blue boxes.
Needlessly complex, needlessly frustrating, and glitchy. No event before or since has made me want to break a tablet more than that one.
The prizes were good.
Heck, the prizes were great!
The prizes were a lie.
I felt so cheated. In the years since, several prizes were available for donuts, and I bought them with a mixture of relief and anger. Relief because, compared to how much I would have spent on eggs, they were probably a bargain. Anger because I played that event with such fervor and had to spend donuts on “prizes” anyway.
The last thing from that accursed event I didn’t have was just released for sale this week. The lizards, available for 30 donuts. I bought them as soon as I saw them. Now finally… finally! I’m done with the Easter event. It only took four years.
Aren’t you glad you asked?
^^ this!!!
I agree with you 100%
Am so glad to finally get the lizards too… let’s never mention that Easter event ever again! 😠
OMG, that sounds like an utter nightmare. I started playing Christmas of that year (got a cheap tablet with my Christmas money on boxing day. Obviously didn’t get very far in that event) so I missed it by quite a bit but after reading your comment I’ve never been so glad to have missed something.
Pagan Xmas. Cant believe they made Maggie so that with that lamb. Stupid idea.
My name is aManInBlack and I’m a tapper, a whistler, and a knee jiggler.
Although the latter is mosly stress induced while the former two are mostly musical.😁
~MIB🕵️
Saw these guys years ago. Just stumbled across them doing a free concert while on vacation. Blew mind tapping mind at the time..still do a little.
Very cool! But when I started counting all of the live microphones on stage…all I could think was “poor mixing engineer!’ That many live mics is a mixer’s nightmare…poor Bastid!
Unrelated but is anyone having the issue where it is updating every time you go in today? Seems to be the same update 1495.5mb.
Try freeing up some space on your phone
Thanks that seemd to work even though I had 10g available.
Quiet makes me nuts. I need music or white noise or something….otherwise i cant function. Lol🎶🎸
Likewise! I spent 8 weeks in the NICU when I was born and my mom loves to tell this story about how she couldn’t figure out why I wouldn’t sleep unless she was vacuuming. Now I sleep with the radio quietly. Total silence is just not a thing I can function with.
Unrelated to this post (I’m a taller btw), but our guys do posts on the mystery boxes? Wondering if it’s worth my donuts for the zoo mystery box or the time travel capsule. FYI I don’t have a cache of donuts but I am level 979 with a 525%. Thanks!
It just comes down to what you want. Really. There is no real advantage with your level of bonus.
All the returning items in the mystery boxes have sib’s you can look up here on this site doing a search. To me, they are worth it since most everything gets a discount. The only drawback is you may not get the item you want since it’s a mystery box. I just hit the time machine mystery box and the first thing i got was in the 4th spot. So after that i went in and out until the next thing i wanted was also in the 4th spot, and i got it, did it again, and i got it. Not sure if it was a coincidence but it was pretty cool!
Deb & I are kindred spirits. Drives me absolutely crazy as does knee bouncing & rapid gum chewing/smacking. Impatient tappers are the worst, IMO it’s rude. I dislike loud noises of any sort except thunder. Leaf (DUST) blowers bring me to the brink of insanity. Loud restaurants make me want to stand up & scream “shut up”, & I’ve actually left without even being seated because of noise. 😂
I’m more of a stringed instrument person than a percussion one, but it takes all different ones to make a good band 😁
I have seen Stomp several times & enjoyed it immensely, & always stop to listen to the street players, so I guess musical tapping doesn’t bother me🤗
So you are not “afflicted!” My wife…very much so.
Now singing/snapping King Of The Road 😂 Guess I’m not afflicted 😁 I do understand her pain tho 😖
Well…as a percussionist primarily…I can say that it definitely affects my guitar, and keyboard playing. Rhythm is the root…right?
True, there does need to be timing & percussion provides that.
I do Not like leaf blowers….pick up a rake FFS! 😠
~MIB🕵️
I agree, here in AZ, we get enough dust blowing around, we don’t need more.
Thanks for this Patric. I am tapper I guess, I cant help it when I saw something that sounds like a snare or a cool distinct sound, I just tap and tap till I form beat. I remember when I was a kid the store attendant told me that everytime I was queuing to pay, I tap the boxes and jars while waiting. I didnt even notice im doing it.
Be proud…be loud!
Awesome! Remembered how much I loved Stomp! Thanks for sharing! Definitely have a place to use the last video, to teach people what to do with their need to tap! 😉
So many ways to tap…and slap.
I’m definitely a whistler and tapper. Those vids were super cool. The creatives should get together with makers. When Innovation meets innovation it can change the world. Great post.
Thanks! Yep…these folks are pretty tapper-ific!