When I first starting playing the banjo I noticed others tapping their foot to keep in beat. I thought how do they do that? In the beginning I never tapped my foot to keep in beat. I felt that was way over my head . It was more comfortable for me to stay still and focusing on picking notes & chords and getting the tune sounding right.
Then I started to work with a metronome to learn how to keep a steady beat. I started noticing my foot wanting to tap along with the tune but I was having difficulties keeping it all co-ordinated between the metronome, my picking and tapping my foot. So I broke the tune up in sections. Started tapping to the metronome and adding a section of the tune. I still find it challenging. Especially when I am tapping to a full note of the metronome but the tune has gone into 1/4 or 1/8th notes but I still have to keep my foot tapping pace with a full note. Oy, thats tough. Kind of like learning how to juggle balls.
Then there is the problem of playing in front of others where I do not have a metronome but I do have a fearful foot frozen in mid air. But thats another story.
Do any of you guys relate to these kinds of difficulties?

Little Neo