How to Find Tempos to a Song

Have you ever been in a role where you need to figure out the tempo to a song or need to count a band off without a reference point? In these easy steps, you can figure out exactly how to make sure you are on tempo each time.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Stopwatch

1. Grab a stopwatch, or find a clock that has a second hand that is moving.
2. Count out from the second hand. Each time it ticks, you have equaled the same amount as 1 beat = 60 seconds. If you are counting in 4, all of your main beats will be synchronized with the tick of the second hand.
3. Take the same tick of the 60 seconds and add or subtract according to the tempo of the song, moving up to double time, which is 1 beat = 120 seconds. For example, if you are going a medium tempo, 1 beat will be 90 seconds and will be a click of 60 seconds plus another third.

Tips & Warnings

• More importantly than knowing the right tempo is staying even all of the time. Act like you are walking evenly to make sure that you keep the right time.
• Feel the tempo in your gut and use your feet to tap. This will help you to remain even all the way through the song that you are playing.