Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [tempo]

The rate of the beats in a passage of music, sometimes expressed in metronome beats per minute (BPM) and sometimes by the Italian system of names

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Is it possible to have "Perfect Tempo"

Perfect pitch is an acknowledged musical skill - the ability to hear a note and name it. Is there a corresponding skill that applies to tempo, to be able to hear music playing and say precisely what the bpm is? For people claiming this skill, what…
Brian THOMAS
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Is it good practice to speed up and slow down where not written in a song?

When a accelerando and ritardando is not written, is it bad to speed up and slow down where you think it “sounds better?” This seems like against practicing with a steady beat, because it makes a metronome useless.
Marvin
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Why does some music sound faster than others even though its BPM is the same?

For example, a symphony orchestra playing Trepak at 150 BPM feels so fast, but certain types of rock music being played at 150 BPM might be considered slow. A house track at 140 BPM would be considered on the fast side of things, but a trance track…
Joe Z.
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How to convert a dotted quarter note tempo to BPM?

I've got a tempo expressed as "one dotted quarter note = 100" and I want to convert this to BPM. I'm thinking it should be 150 BPM, but I'm not sure. Could someone confirm this?
laurent
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What is the difference between molto allegro and allegro di molto

I looked up molto allegro and allegro di molto and they both mean on the fast side of allegro. What is the difference then? Is it like "more allegro" vs "Even more allegro" where "more allegro" is molto allegro and "Even more allegro" is allegro di…
Caters
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What is "Allegro non molto"?

Some parts of The Four Seasons are marked as having a tempo of "Allegro non molto" (Fast not very?), however, I do not see this tempo as being one of the standard ones. There is normally Allegro (Fast) and Molto Allegro (Very Fast). What is Allegro…
Tyler Durden
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Is the tempo supposed to be denoted in the same units as the bottom number of the time signature?

I've seen tempo sometimes denoted like "♩ = 120 BPM" instead of using something like "Adagio". In cases like this where it has a number, the actual size of the note seems irrelevant since I could just say then "dotted-half-note = 30 BPM" and it…
Stan Shunpike
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What Language Is Prevalent for Tempo/Mood Markings in Contemporary Music?

Italian has historically been the gold standard, but Mahler and Beethoven used German quite a bit, and French composers have used their language for a long time. David Gillingham once told me that sticking with one language is preferred, and most of…
JAF
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Accelerando/Ritardando duration?

As I reach to the end of a piano piece, I see a ritardando right here, My question is how long an accel. or rit. last? Looking at one webpage, it says the ritardando can be extended by a dashed horizontal line. I'm assuming the accel. or rit. only…
Magic_Apprentice
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What is the meaning of "un poco" in "un poco adagio"?

According to wikipedia Adagio means: Adagio – slow and stately (literally, "at ease") (66–76 bpm) In Shumann's "Grosse Sonate" op. 11, the tempo marking is "Un poco adagio" : what does this mean? According to Glossary of musical terminology "Un…
Håkon Hægland
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tempo: "Andante allegro" vs "Allegro moderato"

In Händel Harp Concerto in B flat major (Op.4, No.6|HWV294): There three movements: 1.Movement: Andante allegro 2.Movement: Larghetto 3.Movement: Allegro moderato I want to know which tempo marking is faster "Andante allegro" or "Allegro…
iddober
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Approximating ritardando using tempo changes

If you have a series of crotchets (quarter notes), and you want to effect an approximate ritardando by using tempo markings, which of the following would sound more natural: Arithmetic Progression: decrease tempo by a fixed value for successive…
Hypergeometricx
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Why didn't Brahms mark tempo with metronome markings?

Understanding the Fundamentals of Music (2006), by Robert Greenberg, B.A. in music (magna cum laude) from Princeton University, Ph.D. in music composition from the University of California, Berkeley. pp. 66-67 of the Lecture Transcript. In 1815, a…
user26407
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3/4 eigth notes to 4/4 triplets? How to calculate tempo?

So I have a piece that I'm writing that is mostly in 3/4 with a main melody purely in eighth notes. I'm trying to implement a time signature change to 4/4, where what was an eighth note melody in 3/4 turns to triplet eighth notes in 4/4 while…
bebocure
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Dotted Quarter to Quarter

A piece I'm reading in 3/4 has a BPM of 130 dotted quarters per minute. How would i do a conversion of dotted quarter BPM to quarter? I have no clue on how to convert different note length tempos to the tempo of the beat of a different length note.
Logan Needham
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