How To Tap Series With Eleanor - Tips for increasing your speed

Eleanor here again! For this week’s blog we’re going to look at ways to gradually increase your tapping speed, and I have a fun challenge to set you at the end. Make sure to check out my Reel to get involved! Increasing your speed will help to improve your tap dance technique!

Technique before speed

As the saying goes, ‘if you can do it slow, you can do it fast’. There’s no point trying to tap at lightning speed if you haven’t perfected it at a slower pace first! Spend some time refining the steps you’re trying to speed up slowly, before attempting anything at full speed. By drilling everything at a slower speed, your muscle memory can be activated and speeding up will come much easier, as you’ll have less to actively think about! Starting slow and learning the technique will help to improve your tap speed as you continue through to harder steps.

Keep it small

If I had £1 for every time my dance teachers used to tell me this, I’d be a millionaire!! It may go without saying, but it’s much easier to tap quickly if your feet aren’t flying all over the shop. Keep your shuffles small and snappy, keep your paddles grounded, keep your knees soft and bent, and you’ll be tapping at the speed of light in no time! You can still make your moves look visually interesting by making your arm lines clean and sharp, by using your face, and by exaggerating the slower steps more. This is a great tip for those wanting to improve dance tap technique.

The metronome is your bestie

If you leave a tap rehearsal with the sound of a metronome ingrained in your brain, I’ll bet it was a productive class! Even if you’re wanting to tap faster and faster, it’s still important to keep a steady beat and not rush. Install a metronome app on your phone and use it to gradually increase the BPM by a few beats at a time, and keep pushing yourself to hit the beats at each tempo increase. If you prefer, you can pick some of your favourite songs with different tempos to practise with, starting with the slowest and working up to the quickest. But a metronome allows you to know exactly how quick you’re going therefore improving your tap speed!

Keep your ankles loose

This is an important dance tap technique for any speed and style of tap! The more relaxed your ankles are, the more effortless it will be to make beats at a faster tempo. If you find yourself tensing up as you try to reach higher speeds, take some deep breaths and shake out your limbs. You’ve got this!

Ready to test your speed? Take a look at my Taylor Swift speed challenge on Instagram and give it a go. Don’t forget to tag @eleanxrmay and @movedancewear in your videos; we’d love to see how you get on! Happy tapping!

Thank you to Eleanor for giving us her top tap tips in improving your dance tap technique and your tap speed. We hope this blog helps you achieve the tap speed and sound you're looking for! 

Now you're ready to master your tap dance technique, make sure your feet are looking tip tap top. Take a look at tap shoes and tap dance costumes. 

For more top tap tops from Eleanor go to How To Tap Series With Eleanor - 4 Tips To Improve Your Single Wings

Tag us @movedancewear on Tik Tok and Instagram so we can see your tap dance technique. 

See you soon,

Move Dance