How fast or how long?

When we hear different songs, we might note the emotions they try to convey, such as sadness, euphoria, rage or many others, all this being affected by different elements of the overall piece of music, such as melody, harmony, rhythm and many others, though one we tend to overlook in this cases is the contribution of tempo to this. In this article we'll talk about BPM, what It exactly Is, how to count It and how It affects the moods that we perceive in the music we hear. Let's begin with Its definition

What BPM Is?

BPM, or Beats Per Minute, is a measure of the length or speed at which musical figures play, meaning with this that It defines the duration of a sound and how much figures (Usually quarter notes. Yes, the ones in sheets) play along the course of a minute. For example, If a song has a tempo of 80 BPM it means that 80 quarter notes play in one minute with a normal tempo or the notation 4/4 meaning that 4 quarter notes are played over the course of a time measure.

How does It affect the music?

As we might note, usually the faster kind of songs are the ones that have a more uplifting tone, while the slower and somber ones makes us more depressed. One important factor, along with the shape of the melody, timbre and the effects applied to the sound; is the BPM, where putting a lower BPM to a particular track makes up for a more relaxed and introspective experience, and a higher BPM just gives a lot more movement to the sound. This is what explains why usually songs meant for clubs have an increased tempo with respect to the more nostalgic tracks.

How do we count tempo?

To measure tempo in a relative way, what we can do is clap with our hands alongside with the beat and count how many of this claps are in 60 seconds, which comprise a minute. As this can be more complicated that we think, with the existence of distractions in the course of this minute that can make us lose the count, we can chop the process to make It easier, by just counting the amount of claps in 15 seconds of the song and then multiplying this amount by 4 to be more effective when detecting Its BPM.

We hope that with this little article we can give you a surface introduction to BPMs, what they really mean and how to detect them in a natural way. We wish you the best of luck in your next endeavors!