Tempo

When you listen to music, you will notice that some music is played very fast, and at times music can be played very slowly. The speed of the music, referred to as the Tempo, determines how fast or slowly we count the beats in a piece of music. Tempo is often referred to as the “pulse” or “heartbeat” of the music. 

Tempo is measured in beats per minute (bpm). A tempo of 60bpm is the same as one beat per second, while a tempo of 120bpm, the tempo of most modern popular music, doubles the beats per minute and therefore would double the pulse of the music. We will use our metronome to set the tempo as we practice the exercises in this book.