Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music

Basic Music Theory

Here are the most common tempos, from slowest to fastest:

Tempo-related Terms

There are other terms that affect the tempo of a piece. They are:

accelerando (accel.) = speed up gradually.

allargando (allarg.) = slow down and grow louder.

ritardando (rit.) = slow down gradually.

rallentando (rall.) = slow down gradually.

Dynamics.

Dynamics is another word for how loud or soft to play. The base words to

remember for dynamics are piano (quiet) and forte (loud). All of the

dynamic markings are variations of these two words. You’ll see what I

mean. Often in music, you’ll see an abbreviation of the dynamic, shown

in the following chart in parentheses.

TEMPO NAME BEATS PER

MINUTE

Largo 40-60

Larghetto 60-66

Adagio 66-76

Andante 76-108

Moderato 108-120

Allegro 120-168

Presto 168-200

Prestissimo 200-208

DYNAMIC MARKING MEANING

pianissimo (pp) very quiet

piano (p) quiet