This reminds me of a concert a few years ago where I ended up sitting 
directly to the right of the tuba player.  Throughout all the rehearsals, on 
every piece, he was tapping his size 12 flapper right foot about as high and as 
loudly as I've ever seen anybody do it, consistently just a bit behind the 
conductor's beat.  I asked him politely a couple of times if he would mind not 
doing that.  He's a nice guy that I've known for quite awhile but this was the 
first time we had played together.  He replied that Mr. Jacobs had told him he 
should always tap his foot.  Sigh.  By the time the concert came around, the 
distraction had just become a little too much for me, and during a particularly 
rhythmic piece I reached over with my left foot and stepped on his foot and 
held it firmly down.  He struggled like a wild animal to get free but I hung in 
there till the end of the piece as we rocketed through that crazy torrent of 
notes and rhythms. 
 See?  He didn't need to tap his foot after all.

- Steve Mumford
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