A general view on tempo in music.
Great musicians and composers—note this—wrote and performed their works at a predominantly uniform tempo. In simplified form, this was either a fast or a slow tempo. Beethoven and Bach often wrote slow pieces. Mozart and Paganini created light and fast masterpieces.
(I say this because I struggled with Beethoven and Bach in music school, but I played Mozart and Paganini, but not as well as I would have liked.)
In contemporary music, you can also see a connection to tempo.
Dance music (music of the heart) has a tempo of 120. Many punk, rock, and pop bands adapt to this. Although punk should be played faster, and rock is more measured. We are slowly moving toward what interests the masses, not ourselves. And this is the right path. Pop culture always gives the masses what they want, and that’s why it looks cooler and more successful.
If you look at other genres, like chanson, you’re unlikely to hear a fast song. Just like army songs, which have become a separate genre and branched off from bard songs. The tempo of such songs is slow, the voice is distressed, the guitar is poorly tuned, and the balance of the strings is inaudible.
But this applies to certain genres and composers.
And what about amateur performers?
It might seem that someone who plays a musical instrument—or at least has learned what they need—can perform simple pieces at any tempo. Don’t rush!
This is far from true.
Everyone has a tempo they can easily maintain. There are also tempos that are impossible to even approach.
Let’s say you started learning an instrument by playing scales. You’re more likely to be able to play a piece at a tempo of 60-100 than the same scales at a tempo of 120-160.
The ability to adapt to any tempo is the highest skill. You can play an eighth-note rhythm very well at a tempo of 120-160, but you’ll get lost at a very slow tempo of 20-50. There are also those who play slow, broad pieces very well, but when moving beyond 100, they can lose the rhythm, accent, or lead.
Try an experiment.
If you’ve learned to play a song at its original tempo, double the speed and see if you can maintain the tempo.
This isn’t about breaking the rhythmic pattern, but about mastering your speed. Some people might not appreciate your performance of a lullaby at 130 tempo. Likewise, no one is interested in listening to the famous high-speed death metal solos at 20 tempo. It might make you fall asleep!
Just to understand what tempo is “native” for you, and what is not yet achievable, you need to play one piece at different tempos.
I have had the chance to communicate – mostly with guitarists – for whom tempo is a very important thing. They don’t begin to analyze until they have thoroughly worked out the sense of the tempo of the piece, beating in time with the metronome with 100% accuracy. Only then do they move on to playing the piece, knowing in advance how to correctly place the notes at the desired tempo.
I talk in more detail about the important role of tempo in a piece or even a musical group as a whole during my free consultations.
Play at your own pace!
