How to Tell Beats per Minute in a Hip Hop Song

DJ mixes are made by putting songs together that have the same or similar beats per minute (BPM). Hip Hop songs have eight counts and use a kick, snare drum pattern. For your first attempt, use a track where you already know how many BPM there are in the song. Here are ways to tell beats per minute in a Hip Hop song manually.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Set the pitch to zero either by hand or by pressing reset on your board to be sure the song is playing at its original pitch. Use a part of the song that doesn't have a lot of changes.

2. Start to play the Hip Hop song. Use a stop watch or watch to keep track of the time. Wait until a one count of the music and start the stop watch.

3. Count out one through eight until you have counted to eight four times. Stop the watch on the next one count.

4. Take 32 beats and divide it by the length in seconds that it took to get to that number of beats. Multiply this number by 60 and you should have the BPM for that hip hop song.

5. Try to play the hip hop song and count the number of beats you hear in 30 seconds. Double this number and you will get the approximate beats per minute.

[type3beats]

on 7/16/2009 That is a good method. Another method is to use a program by Analog X called Tap Tempo. It is freeware you just have to Google it. It is perfect to tell the tempo in Hip Hop beats.