Here is the piece played with the tempo marking Lento:įinally we could slow the piece down to a very slow tempo using the marking Grave. The bpm range of Lento/Largo is 40-60 bpm. The words Lento and Largo both mean very slowly. Here is the piece with a tempo marking of Adagio. The definition of Andante is walking pace. We can slow it down further by using the word Andante. The bpm range for moderato is 108-120 bpm. The marking Moderato means moderately quick. Have a listen to how the piece sounds with a prestissimo tempo:Īlternatively, we could choose to have the piece played slower. The bpm range for prestissimo is over 200 bpm!! We could choose to have the piece played even faster by using the tempo marking Prestissimo. The musical definition of Presto is Very Fast and so the performer would play the piece at a very fast tempo. However, we could change the tempo marking at the start of the piece to Presto. The piece of music works well at an allegro tempo. Have a look at the sheet music and listen to the allegro tempo example: The definition of Allegro is fast and so the piece should be played at a fast tempo. You can see that the tempo marking Allegro has been written at the start of the piece. Have a look at the following piece of music (it is a traditional folk song called “Country Gardens”). Let’s have a look at some common tempo markings in the context of a worked example. Here is a summary chart of the most common tempo markings with their definitions and bpm ranges: However, over time musicologists have agreed general ranges of bpm which the tempo markings refer to.įor example, the bpm of andante (walking pace) is recognised as being between 76 and 108 bpm. The tempo markings give a description of the tempo of the piece rather than an exact bpm (beats per minute).Īs a result, the actual speed of each tempo marking is open to interpretation. Here are some examples of tempo markings that you will commonly find in sheet music: Tempo markings are written above the stave at the start of a piece of music. The speed/tempo of a piece in traditional music notation is given with an Italian word called a tempo marking. Tempo Markings and/or Metronome Markings Tempo Markings When you’re reading a piece of sheet music there are 2 main things you need to look out for at the start of the piece in order to work out the tempo: The rhythms in the 3 audio examples above are very different, but the beat/pulse remains the same. The extracts sound different, but the tempo of each piece is the same:īe careful not to confuse tempo with the number of beats in a bar – this is described by the time signature.Īlso, be careful not to think that tempo is a description of how “busy” or short the rhythms are. Have a listen to the following example of 3 different short extracts of music. To work out the tempo of a piece of music you are listening to you need to have a clear sense of the beat. romantic ballads tend to have a fairly slow tempo, whilst disco music tends to have a fast tempo. For example, there are some styles of music which have specific tempos – e.g. The choice of tempo (speed) of a piece of music has a crucial bearing on its feel and even the genre it sits in. Tempo describes the speed of the pulse/beat of a piece of music.
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