Steve PMHSome songs give you energetic vibes, urging you to clap along to the rhythm. Meanwhile, some songs make you want to crawl under the blanket and bawl your eyes out. Aside from the rhythm, the tempo has a massive contribution to the feeling a song gives you.
If you try to play one rhythm in fast and slow tempos, it’ll give you different vibes in both cases, although it has the same pulses, beats, and time signature. That’s the effect the tempo has on music.
Take Bohemian Rhapsody, for an example. It’s one of the most popular songs globally for its varying tempos, which were only used in progressive rock before.
Follow this article if you want to understand what tempo means and how it correlates with other musical terms.
What Is Tempo in Music?
Tempo is the speed at which your musical piece is playing. Musicians play around with tempos to convey a certain feeling of excitement, sorrow, fear, etc. That’s why most sad songs have slow rhythms, and most energetic songs are fast-going.
The tempo is measured in BPM, which is short for beats per minute. So, for example, if you treat your watch’s ticks as a musical piece, you’ll count 60 beats per minute, and that’s the tempo of the so-called music.
The lower the beats per minute, the slower the song will be because the tempo will be slower.
What Is BPM in Music?
BPM, or beats per minute, is the measuring unit of the music’s tempo, and it determines the pace of your song or piece.
The beat value is indicated by the time signature, which we’ll get into in detail later. To give you an example, if a song has a 4/4 signature, then each quarter note is equal to one beat. In other words, each measure has four beats.
When the time signature changes, it pulls the tempo along with it because it controls the beat value. So, both have a corresponding relationship, but we’ll get into that later.
What Is Rhythm in Music?
The music’s rhythm is the pattern of beats played at a certain speed in a limited time duration. You can think of it as the controlled movement of the beats with regard to time. You may measure it in meters, beats, or pulses.
The rhythm divides the music into metrical portions, while the tempo determines its speed.
When you listen to jumpy music and feel your whole body moving with the beat, that’s the rhythm’s effect.
The Difference Between Tempo and Rhythm
It’s pretty normal to mix the tempo and rhythm up since they’re both closely related musical terms. You’ll be surprised, though, to find out that they couldn’t be further away from each other.
Tempo is merely an element of the rhythm. The rhythm is basically the arrangement of beats of the music in a pattern for a specific time duration.
So, the beat, tempo, and time signature are all elements of the rhythm. The tempo measures the number of beats you play in one minute, dictating the song’s speed. Meanwhile, the rhythm is the general pattern of the music.
Let’s say you have a human’s heart beating. The beats sometimes get faster or slower, but the heart keeps beating nevertheless. Here, the speed of the beating is the tempo, while the beating pattern is the rhythm. What I’m trying to say is, the beats keep going regardless of the speed. So, speed is merely an aspect of the whole beating process, just like tempo.
That’s precisely the difference between the tempo and the rhythm.
For both tempo and rhythm, time is a vital aspect. You can’t dictate a song’s rhythm without respect to time, and you can’t calculate its speed without the duration it’s played in.
What Are the Main Elements of Rhythm in Music?
For you to listen to a perfect rhythm, many factors have to align and stay in order. You wouldn’t believe how many elements are involved in presenting you with a musical masterpiece. The main aspects of rhythm are pulses, time signature, beats, and much more.
To understand where tempo falls in, here’s a brief summary of some of them.
Beats and Pulses
To sum it up, beats are the primary measurement music unit, and pulses are repeated beats. You can find connections between all musical terms if you look thoroughly. For example, a 4/4 time signature means that each measure has a total of four beats.
To put it simply, when you’re listening to We Will Rock You by Queen, you get the urge to clap, right? Of course, you do! That was the whole point of the song. Well, when you clap, you’re matching the beats. With each repeated clap, you’re sensing a pulse.
So, a pulse is the pattern of beats, while the tempo is the number of the beats.
Time Signature
Since I mentioned the time signature in the previous section, I’ll elaborate on it. Simply put, time signature tells you how many beats are in one full measure and how long they last. It’s mainly stated as a fraction, to name a few, 6\8, 5\4, 4\4, etc.
The numerator indicates how many pulses are in one bar, while the denominator shows you the notes that pulses are measured in. For instance, a 5/4 signature indicates that five beats make the bar whole, while a 4\4 signature only needs four beats to produce a full bar.
While the standard signature is 4/4, there are exceptions where composers tend to go beyond it. For example, waltz music sometimes calls for a ¾ signature, while marching music pieces require a 2/4 signature.
There are two types of time signatures that composers use: compound and simple times.
Simple Time Signature
In this type of signature, you can break the music’s beat into rhythms with two parts. They’re easily countable because one-two pulses are familiar to our ears. Out of all simple time signatures, the ones primarily used are 2/4, ¾, 4/4, and 2/2.
Compound Time Signature
Compound time signatures are a little more complicated than simple ones because the beat is broken down into rhythms of three parts instead of just two. Consequently, you get one-two-three pulses instead of the familiar one-two. Compound time signatures include 9/4, 12/8, and 6/8.
Tempo
Contrary to most terms used in music, the tempo is straightforward to understand. It shows the speed of the musical piece you’re creating. The primary measurement unit for tempo is BPM, but it isn’t the only efficient way to measure it. You can also use Italian terminology and modern words.
How Does Tempo Correspond With Time Signature?
In musical notations, the tempo always corresponds with the time signature because the signature directly affects the beat. The relation goes as follows: the time signature tells you how to count the beat, and the tempo tells you how fast you should count them.
Here’s how different time signatures affect the beat of the music:
- In any time signature with four on the bottom, the beat corresponds with quarter notes. Consequently, if you have a 4/4 time signature, it means a complete measure has four beats. And in a 5/4 signature, a full bar has five beats.
- In time signatures with eight on the bottom, the tempo will correspond with eighth notes. So, for example, in a 12/8 time signature, each measure should have 12 tempo beats.
How to Calculate a Musical Piece’s Tempo
Calculating the tempo of anything isn’t an easy process. To do it, you need to have musical ears to catch the time signature. But most importantly, you need to learn about music theory to understand how notations are written.
On music sheets, composers divide their notations into smaller sections, called measures or bars. Each bar consists of a number of music notes, determining the rhythm. There are also accidentals and counterpoints, but that’s a story for another day.
The time signature of the musical piece dictates the number of beats in each bar, along with the number of notes. Meanwhile, the tempo is the number of beats per minute.
To calculate the tempo, you need to count the beat first. Some people learn how to do it by counting the beats in 15 seconds, and then they multiply it by four to get the number of beats in each minute.
If you can’t do that, you can opt for the easy way and use Digital Audio Workstation instead. Most similar software can count the bpm automatically, so you don’t have to calculate anything yourself.
If you don’t have such software, you can always opt for online calculators, such as Beats per minute online. As a last resort, you can check music databases to get the tempo of popular songs. For example, you can see Songbpm or BPMdatabase.
Alternative Ways to Measure the Tempo
BPM isn’t the only one way of measuring the tempo. Although it’s the most accurate method, there are other ways you can use to describe or measure the tempo: Italian terminology and modern language.
Italian Terminology
Italy didn’t only give us pasta, pizza, and Pavarotti. As the name conveys, we owe the Italians a lot for beautifully developing the language of music. Their ancient terminology has been famous for centuries, and it still stands proudly among other ways of measuring the tempo.
Referring to the music’s speed, the Italians gave tempo many terms that are still being used to this day. The most popular words that composers use are allegro, largo, andante, presto, and larghissimo. Nearly every classical music composer out there knows those terms.
Modern Language
Although classical musicians find the elegance of Italian terminology a perfect fit for their masterpieces, pop and rock musicians don’t tend to agree. It’s not quite their tempo, as Terence Fletcher would rudely say. I can’t argue, though! It’d be bizarre to refer to a rock song as an allegro.
As a result, modern language rose to fame. It includes many English terms that most people are familiar with, like fast, moderate, relaxed, and slow. The causal nature of those words fits to be used with rock and pop pieces.
It’s worth noting, though, that modern language may not be accurate. It’s alright to use it when describing a song. However, when composing, you can’t rely on it because the terms are broad.
For example, Italian terminology has four different words to describe slow tempo: larghissimo, grave, largo, and larghetto. In English, you’ll describe them as very slow, slow, and moderately slow, which isn’t ideal.
So it’s better to stick to Italian terminology or get the exact bpm for accurate results.
The Basic Tempo Markings in Italian Terminology
Tempo isn’t always measured in numbers. In Italian terminology, it’s measured by markings, which are classified by Italian words. Here are the common ones and their bpm.
- Larghissimo: Too slow (Less than 20 bpm)
- Grave: Very slow (20–40 bpm)
- Largo: Commonly slow (40–60 bpm)
- Larghetto: Moderately slow (60–66 bpm)
- Adagio: At ease (66–76 bpm)
- Adagietto: A tad faster than Adagio (70–80 bpm)
- Andante: Regular (76–108 bpm)
- Moderato: Moderate speed (108–120 bpm)
- Allegretto: Moderately fast (112–120 bpm)
- Allegro: The most popular marking (120–168 bpm)
- Vivace: Fast (168–176 bpm)
- Vivacissimo and Allegrissimo: Faster than Vivace (172–176 bpm)
- Presto: Very fast (168–200 bpm)
- Prestissimo: Extremely fast (200 bpm and more)
Generally, measuring the tempo in BPM is the most accurate way. Although Italian terminology has been the most popular way for ages, it’s still not accurate enough. When you have the bpm, you can play the song exactly as it’s meant to. That’s why it’s used in all applications that need precise musical duration, like film scoring, for example.
Composers also use bpm to set metronomes for professional recordings. If you’ve been a veteran in the world of music for a whole, you’ve probably heard the word metronome markings before.
What Is the Tempo of Popular Music Genres?
There isn’t a single standard tempo for music. Each genre has a different tempo, and it may differ according to the song. However, there’s an average tempo, or BPM, for each genre. Here’s a roundup of the most popular genres and how fast their music goes.
Reggae
If you have heard reggae songs before, you know they’re slower than average. This is because they emphasize the backbeat, and their time signature is 4/4. As for the tempo, it ranges from 80–110 bpm.
Don’t get tricked by the jumpy feel of some reggae songs. It’s not because the tempo is fast, but instead because of the staccato beats played on the measure’s off beats.
Pop
Pop songs usually have a tempo ranging from 100–150 bpm, varying according to the song’s style.
The average tempo of pop songs also changes according to the release year. For example, in 2020, the best-selling songs had a tempo of 122 bpm. Ten years later, the average tempo may have been around 150 bpm.
The most common range in pop songs is 116–124 bpm.
Rock
Rock songs are typically fast since they’re all about electric guitars and driving rhythms. As a result, they have a tempo ranging from 110–170 bpm. Most of them also have a 4/4 time signature, so each full bar has four beats.
Jazz
Jazz is all about swing rhythms and syncopations. It’s been one of the most famous American genres since the 20th century, and its tempo has a wide range.
Some jazz songs may have a fast tempo of 320 bpm, while others will be as slow as 60 bpm. Jazz is one of the genres that’s hard to classify into a tight range because it’s an incredibly versatile genre.
Hip Hop
Hip hop songs generally have an average tempo of 60–100 bpm, but it’s a bit hard to standardize them. A lot of people consider hip hop a cultural movement, not a musical genre. Regardless of whether that’s true or not, it makes it harder to put hip hop under a classification.
House
House music is most famous for its accented bass drums. When drums are included, the tempo goes around 160–180 bpm, which is relatively fast. Depending on the song, if there aren’t drums, the tempo slows down to 115–150 bpm.
What Is Tempo Rubato?
The word rubato is an Italian term used to describe rhythmic manipulation. When the composer writes a tempo rubato, the performer knows there isn’t a set tempo. In this case, the performers play their own tempos, and they may stretch some measures or beats according to their preference.
The composers indicate the rubato on the musical score, and so the performers know they’re free to improvise on the beat. According to the performer’s choice, the rubato may only change the music’s melody or its whole texture.
Some people may think that musical notes are disregarded when there’s a rubato, but that’s not true. The performer still needs to abide by the composer’s guidelines and the rhythm. The rubato is a mere deviation from the base.
