{"id":16759,"date":"2022-07-01T13:57:01","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T11:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=168534"},"modified":"2022-07-01T14:08:21","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T12:08:21","slug":"what-is-tempo-in-music","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/what-is-tempo-in-music\/","title":{"rendered":"What is tempo in music?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By BBC Music Magazine\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 01 July 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Tempo is a term used to refer to the speed or pace of a piece of music. For example, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov<\/a>\u2019s Flight of the Bumblebee has a faster tempo than Chopin<\/a>\u2019s Funeral March\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Tempo shouldn\u2019t be confused with a piece\u2019s time signature, which indicates how many beats are included in a bar, whereas tempo indicates how fast or slow those beats should be.<\/p>\n<p>Tempos are measured in beats per minute (BPM). Working from the slowest to the fastest, here\u2019s a quick guide to the different tempos used in classical music and the typical BPM ranges they fall within on a metronome.<\/p>\n<h2>The different tempo speeds<\/h2>\n<ul><li>Grave (very slowly and solemnly, 20-40 BPM)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/lento-music-definition\/"\">Lento<\/a><\/strong> (very slowly, 40-60 BPM)<\/li>\n<li>Largo (slowly and broadly, 40-60 BPM)<\/li>\n<li>Larghetto (fairly slow, 60-66 BPM)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-is-adagio-in-music\/"\">Adagio<\/a><\/strong> (slowly, leisurely, 66-76 BPM)<\/li>\n<li>Andante (walking pace, 76-108 BPM)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-is-a-moderato\/"\">Moderato<\/a><\/strong> (moderate or medium, 108-120 BPM)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-does-allegro-mean-in-music\/"\">Allegro<\/a><\/strong> (fast and bright, 120-156 BMP)<\/li>\n<li>Vivace (lively, 156-168 BPM)<\/li>\n<li>Presto (very fast, 168-200 BPM)<\/li>\n<li>Prestissimo (even faster, 200-208 BPM)<\/li>\n<\/ul><p><strong>Image by Getty Images<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BBC Music Magazine Published: Friday, 01 July 2022 at 12:00 am Tempo is a term used to refer to the speed or pace of a piece of music. For example, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov\u2019s Flight of the Bumblebee has a faster tempo than Chopin\u2019s Funeral March\u00a0 Tempo shouldn\u2019t be confused with a piece\u2019s time signature, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":16760,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-tempo-in-music.jpg",1772,1302,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-tempo-in-music-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-tempo-in-music-300x220.jpg",300,220,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-tempo-in-music-768x564.jpg",768,564,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-tempo-in-music-1024x752.jpg",800,588,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-tempo-in-music-1536x1129.jpg",1536,1129,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-tempo-in-music.jpg",1772,1302,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By BBC Music Magazine Published: Friday, 01 July 2022 at 12:00 am Tempo is a term used to refer to the speed or pace of a piece of music. For example, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov\u2019s Flight of the Bumblebee has a faster tempo than Chopin\u2019s Funeral March\u00a0 Tempo shouldn\u2019t be confused with a piece\u2019s time signature, which…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/16759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}