BPM Tool

How To Use The Tap BPM Tool

This tool will help you calculate the tempo of any song. To use the tool, just tap the above button along with the beat of the song. After 6 taps, the bpm counter will display the tempo.

If you speed up, the bpm counter will show a higher tempo. If you slow down, the tempo displayed will follow. To get the most accurate bpm of a song, tap along until you get a consistent reading from the counter.

Practicing With A BPM Counter

There are two ways I like to use a BPM counter.

1. To check my internal tempo. You won't always have a metronome handy to give you a reference tempo. It is important to be able to have a strong internal sense of time so that if you see a tempo of 160 BPM, you have a general idea of how fast that is.
2. Sometimes when we practice, we need to start at a slow tempo to play the piece correctly. Tracking what tempo we can successfully play a passage and recording it in our practice journal ensures that next time we come to practice this piece, we know what to set the metronome at.

What does BPM mean?

BPM stands for "beats-per-minute." It is a way of describing the tempo of a song. A fast piece of music will have many beats per minute, whereas a slow song might have 60 or fewer beats per minute.

You can learn more about BPM here and how to develop an internal sense of time.

BPM vs Tempo Markings

Tempo can be written as BPM (usually show as quarter note =), or it can be written as a tempo marking. Tempo markings are usually a few words that describe a range of tempos. For example, Adagio could be as slow as 66 or as fast as 76.

In addition to giving a range of bpm, tempo markings usually convey some character. For example, Largo and Lento can both mean a range of 40 - 60 beats per minute, but Largo also means "broadly," which suggests performing notes in a connected style.