Metronome BPM Chart: Tempo Markings Explained

Every tempo marking with its BPM range, the modifiers that bend them, the genre tempos, and a metronome on this page to hear any number you read. Plus the footnote most charts skip: the ranges are conventions, not laws. The words are older than the metronome.

6 min read

The short answer

Roughly: largo 40–60, adagio 66–76, andante 76–108, moderato 108–120, allegro 120–156, presto 168–200. Treat these as conventions rather than rules: the Italian words describe character and are more than a century older than the metronome, so charts disagree at the edges. When a score prints an actual number, the number wins.

The chart

Marking	BPM	What it means
Grave	25–45	Very slow, solemn, the slowest marking in regular use
Largo	40–60	Broad, spacious; slow and dignified
Larghetto	60–66	A little less broad than largo
Adagio	66–76	Slow, at ease, the classic slow-movement tempo
Andante	76–108	Walking pace, literally, flowing but unhurried
Moderato	108–120	Moderate; the middle of the road
Allegretto	112–120	Moderately fast, lighter in character than allegro
Allegro	120–156	Fast, bright, cheerful, the most common fast marking
Vivace	156–176	Lively, brisk
Presto	168–200	Very fast
Prestissimo	200+	As fast as playable, faster than presto

The ranges overlap and the borders are soft. That’s not sloppiness, it’s the subject. The Italian words predate the metronome by more than a century and describe character first: allegro means cheerful, andante means walking, largo means broad. The numbers were bolted on after 1815, and no two publishers ever fully agreed. When a score gives you both the word and an explicit number (“♩ = 132”), the number wins.

Hear any of them right now

Reading “76–108” tells you less than four bars of it. Set the metronome to the range you were just reading about:

Try it: a real metronome, right here

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90BPM

Tap the button in time with a song to find its BPM. The real one in Tempo Kit runs 30–600 BPM with subdivisions, swing, polyrhythm, and 9 click sounds, beside the video, not on a separate page.

The modifiers that bend the chart

Scores rarely leave the base words alone. The usual suspects:

Molto / assai: very. Allegro molto: push toward the top of allegro’s range and past it.
Poco / un poco: a little. Poco adagio: slow-ish, without committing.
Meno / più: less / more, usually with mosso (motion). Meno mosso: less movement, settle back.
Ma non troppo: but not too much. Allegro ma non troppo: fast, and don’t get carried away.
-etto / -issimo: the diminutive and the superlative baked into the word itself: allegretto is a lighter allegro, prestissimo is presto’s ceiling.
Accelerando / ritardando (accel. / rit.): speed up / slow down gradually; a tempo: return to the previous tempo; rubato: borrowed time, bending the beat expressively around a steady underlying pulse.

Anchors you already own

Four reference points make the whole chart intuitive, no metronome required:

60 BPM is the second hand: one beat per second. Everything in largo territory lives at or below a ticking clock.
Your resting heartbeat (~60–80) sits right on the adagio/andante border, which is part of why those tempos feel “calm.”
A comfortable walk is andante, literally. Count your footfalls for fifteen seconds and multiply by four; you’ll land in the 80s or 90s.
120 BPM is the march / dance-floor default: two steps per second, the moderato-allegro border, and the tempo most DAWs open at.

Genre tempo ranges

Genre	Typical BPM
Ballads	60–80
Hip-hop / R&B	85–115
Pop	100–130
Rock	110–140
House / EDM	120–130
Punk / metal	160–200
Drum & bass	165–180

Typical, not guaranteed: every genre has outliers, and half-time/double-time feel can make a 170 BPM drum & bass track and an 85 BPM hip-hop track share the same head-nod. When the number matters, measure the actual song.

Finding the BPM of a real song

Two free ways. Count it: tap along with the pulse for fifteen seconds, count the taps, multiply by four. Tap it: most metronomes (including the one above) have a tap-tempo button: tap the beat eight or ten times and read the number. For songs and lessons on YouTube, the full workflow (tapping, auto-detecting, and getting a click running over the video) is covered in running a metronome over a YouTube video.

The chart is the destination, not the route

One caution before you dial in whatever the score says: the marking describes the finished performance, not your Tuesday practice session. If the piece is allegro at 138 and you can currently play it cleanly at 84, then 84 is today’s correct metronome setting. The route from one number to the other is its own craft, covered in how to practice with a metronome and why slow practice works.

Common questions

What BPM is allegro?

Roughly 120–156, and it's the most common fast marking in classical scores. 'Allegro' literally means cheerful, which is a useful reminder that these words describe character as much as speed. An allegro should sound bright, not panicked. Allegretto sits just below at about 112–120 and is lighter in feel.

What does andante mean, and what BPM is it?

Andante is Italian for 'walking', and it means exactly that: an easy walking pace, conventionally 76–108. It's the widest range on the chart because walking speeds vary. If you want to feel it, walk at a comfortable pace and count your footsteps: that's andante.

Is 120 BPM fast?

It's the border. 120 is where moderato hands over to allegro, and it's also march tempo, the classic dance-floor pulse, and the default in most metronomes and recording software. Below it music tends to feel relaxed, above it energetic. For your hands, though, it depends entirely on how many notes you're playing per beat.

Why do different sources give different BPM ranges for tempo markings?

Because the words came first and the numbers came late. The Italian terms predate the metronome by well over a century, and when publishers started stamping numbers on them after 1815 they never fully agreed. Treat any chart as a modern consensus, and let a composer's printed number override the word or you can decide the tempo since you are the one who's playing it.

What BPM should a beginner set the metronome to?

Ignore the chart for that: it describes how the piece should eventually sound, not where to practice it. Your practice tempo is the fastest one where you can play the passage cleanly, which for new material is often 50–70 BPM whatever the score says. The marking is the destination, not the route.

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