Tap tempo
Tap along to a song, on the button or the space bar, and read its tempo in beats per minute. Then see which genres live at that speed, and hear a click at it. No sign-up, nothing to install.
The tap tempo counter
Learn to hear tempo, then make a beat at it
Unit 1 of the course is free with a Google sign-in: the loop, the beat, tempo as walking speed, and your first beat on the grid.
Pick up where you left off
Carry on with Unit 1; tempo is its third lesson.
How to find a song’s BPM
Play the song and tap the big button on every beat: the steady pulse you would nod or stamp to, not every drum hit. After the second tap the counter shows a tempo; after six or eight it settles, because it averages the gaps between your last taps. If you lose the beat, stop for a few seconds and start tapping again. Space, Enter and the T key tap too, so you can keep your eyes on the player.
BPM means beats per minute: how many of those pulses fit in sixty seconds. 60 BPM is one beat a second, a slow walk; 120 is two a second, a jog; most dance music lives between 120 and 140, and drum & bass runs at about 174. The words under the number say the speed in walking terms, the way the course teaches it.
Half or double? Tempo is a feel as much as a number. If you tap along to trap or dubstep you will probably land near 70, because the snare comes once a bar: those styles are written at 140 with a half-time feel. The counter says so when your tempo matches a half-time style at double speed. The same goes the other way: a fast shuffle often reads as double what the producer wrote.
What you just heard: the click is a rim on every beat, the same four pulses as four-on-the-floor. Each genre chip opens that genre’s loop at its own tempo, and the free Tempo lesson in Unit 1 has you sort real tracks from a slow walk to a run.
Which genre lives at which tempo
| BPM | Style | What the tempo does |
|---|---|---|
| 60–90 | Downtempo and ambient | Slow enough that the beat is a backdrop, not a pulse to dance to. |
| 70–90 | Lo-fi hip hop | A head-nod: slow boom bap drums with swung hats. |
| 80–95 | Boom bap (1990s hip hop) | Walking pace. The kick drags, the snare cracks on 2 and 4. |
| 88–100 | Reggaeton | The dembow sways; faster than this it starts to rush. |
| 60–100 | R&B and neo-soul | Slow to mid tempo with a heavy backbeat and lots of swing. |
| 100–115 | Afrobeats | A relaxed dance tempo; the percussion fills the space between kicks. |
| 110–116 | Amapiano | Just under house: the log drum bass has room to bounce. |
| 100–130 | Pop | Most pop sits around 120, a tempo almost everyone can clap along to. |
| 110–125 | Disco and funk | A kick on every beat and an off-beat hat, a little slower than house. |
| 120–128 | House | The dance-floor default: a jog, with a kick on every beat. |
| 125–135 | Techno | House’s harder, faster neighbour; the kick is heavier and the groove is stricter. |
| 128–135 | UK garage | House tempo with a skipping two-step beat and swung hats. |
| 130–140 | Trance | Fast four-on-the-floor under long supersaw chords and builds. |
| 138–142 (½) | Dubstep | Written at 140 but the snare lands on beat 3, so it feels like 70. |
| 130–150 (½) | Trap | Fast hats, slow snare: 140 that feels like 70. |
| 155–165 | Footwork and juke | Very fast and sparse; the kick patterns are the melody. |
| 170–176 | Drum & bass | A sprint: the break flies, the bass moves slowly underneath. |
(½) marks a half-time feel: the written tempo is double what you would tap.