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90-130 is medium tempo; anything above 130 is fast.
Decide on a tempo early in the songwriting process. Often a musical idea will come to you with an implicit tempo.
Make a note of this, either by using a drum machine or a metronome. Once you have planned your song, count the
number of bars in each section and add the total. Establish the tempo and if the song is in 4/4 divide that number by
- You will have the number of bars per minute. Here's an example:
SONG: i (4) + v (16) + ch (8) + v2 (16) + ch (8) + b (8) + v3 (8) + ch (8) + ch (8) = 84
barsAt a tempo of 100bpm it takes a minute to play 25 bars, so this song will take just under three minutes. This is a
handy check if you want the song to be a certain length. It is also a helpful "early warning system" if you tend to
write songs that are too long (a common fault in amateur songwriting). Shortening songs is good discipline. Always
ask yourself if you (your listener, EMI or the world) really need that fourth verse or fifth chorus. "Leave 'em wanting
more" is a sound adage. One of the best comments people can make about a song is, "It's great but it's too short."
Here's another tip: After you've finished writing a song and are ready to record the first tracks of drums and rhythm
guitar, always try playing it faster. Increase the tempo slowly and see how far you can go before the tempo is
incompatible with the mood of the song. You will be surprised how often a song will benefit from being played
slightly faster than the speed at which it first came to you. Bands often discover this when they play a new song live.
This is often true of ballads, where slow tempos increase the risk of boredom.
Tempo Performance Variation
Tempo performance variation or "TPV" – meaning, slowing down or speeding up – is the kind of sarcastic
numbskull term that might have been dreamed up by the sort of misguided producer who believes everyone should
record to a click track.
Before the advent of click tracks in studios, it was perfectly normal for band performances to speed up slightly,
especially through excitement. Rock music is supposed to be exciting, after all. This effect can be approximated
when recording with a drum machine by increased the tempo setting by 1bpm at the start of a given section. Don't
increase by too much or it will be noticeable. When you record instrumental tracks against this, you must listen
carefully for this point and adjust your playing in response to the machine.
The Mechanization of Rhythm
It is true that drum machines are wonderful for home recording. You may be lucky enough to know a drummer with
the invention of Stewart Copeland, the power of John Bonham or the explosive force of Keith Moon. Unfortunately,
though, if you stick this drummer in your home studio/front room/flat, the neighbours are not going to be very
happy.
That said, click tracks and drum machines are two of the worst things ever to happen to popular music. First, drum
machines – like all machines – are expressionless in the true sense. No human being is behind the sound at the
moment that sound is made. Of course, the technology is a human artefact, and the programming carries human
intention that may contain aesthetic expression. But it is the machine that executes the actual music. The essential
link in the moment of performance between the soul and sound waves is not there. The