Tempo

What is Tempo?

Tempo is the pace or speed of the music. Higher tempo means a faster song, whereas a lower tempo means a slower song.

Tempo is flexible in classical music — many pieces have parts that speed up or slow down expressively, which is known as rubato. This is much less common in popular music, which usually has a “fundamental pulse” that stays at the same tempo throughout the song. Some parts of the song may sound more energetic than others, but that’s because the musicians are packing more notes into the same tempo. In other words, you could keep a metronome going at the same setting throughout these songs, and it would never lose the beat, even during the parts that sound slower or faster.

Types of Tempo

Tempo can be described with numbers or with words. With numbers, it’s described in BPM or “beats per minute,” which is a setting you can find on any digital metronome. 120 BPM is a fairly standard setting, and many popular songs fall roughly within the range of 100-120 BPM.

In classical music, tempo is usually described with words rather than numbers. There’s a standard set of Italian terms used in classical music.

Tempo vs. Beat vs. Rhythm

These three terms are often confused, but they mean slightly different things. “Beat” and “tempo” are very closely related: beat describes the fundamental pulse of a song, or what you would tap your foot to while listening. Tempo describes the speed of that pulse, so it’s one of the most important characteristics of a beat.

Rhythm, on the other hand, is more complicated, and describes the specific way that musicians layer notes on top of the beat.

Here’s a simple example of how the terms are related:

Beat: The count of 1-2-3-4

Tempo: The speed of counting

Rhythm: clapping your hands on 2 and 4, but not 1 or 3

Changing Tempo

In most songs (especially popular music), the basic tempo doesn’t change throughout the song. However, there are musical concepts that involve speeding up or slowing down the tempo. One of these we’ve already seen: rubato, or slight expressive changes in tempo. Check out example #1 below if you want to hear rubato in action.

For larger or more permanent changes, classical music has another pair of concepts: accelerando (“accelerate”) and ritardando (“slow down”). Accelerando and ritardando refer to a gradual but sustained change in the tempo. You’ll sometimes see these terms written above a line of music, indicating that the composer wants you to change the tempo at this point.

Examples

“Prelude in E-Minor” by Chopin

This is one of Chopin’s most popular pieces, and a good example of music played in “moderato” (the BPM in this performance is roughly 85). However, if you count along with the beat, you’ll find that it speeds up and slows down significantly. This is called rubato, or a performer’s subtle changing of the tempo for expressive purposes.

“Sing Sing Sing” by Benny Goodman

This is a classic of swing jazz, played at a blistering 255 BPM. In classical music, this tempo would be called prestissimo, or “extremely fast.” Notice the lack of rubato — Benny’s drummer keeps a constant, steady pulse throughout the song and never speeds up or slows down even as the song shifts around him.

Why is Tempo Important?

Tempo is one of the most basic characteristics of music. Dance music tends to be uptempo, while ballads are usually much slower, and this helps listeners relate to the music and respond to it emotionally. If you want a hands-on demonstration of the importance of tempo, find a sped-up or slowed-down version of some of your favorite music (it’s all over YouTube), and notice how much of an impact this has on the sound.

How to Identify Tempo

When Reading

In sheet music, you can usually find the tempo on the top right of the page, just below the title. It’s almost always written in Italian rather than BPM, but most metronomes will have a setting that allows you to translate.

When Listening

It’s very easy to hear the tempo of a song — just clap or tap your feet, and notice how fast you’re going. To translate that into BPM, you can easily find metronome apps or websites with a “tap” feature; this will provide you with a button that you can tap in time to the music, and the computer will translate that into a BPM number.