What is your BPM?

Funny, I have noticed the same thing about myself: I am 120 bpm.

My thought is it is the genre.

This is actually very old topic - relationship between musician heart rate and tempo of the musical piece. German composer and flute virtuoso Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773) wrote theoretical text book Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen and in one chapter he described how to setup correct tempo from the musician heart rate. Very interesting reading. Sometimes ve have tendency to feel that we are most clever generation in the history but we are wrong

I have a different bpm now with 51 than I had with 21.. that's...for sure..

I also believe in some "mystical relationships" between tunings,beats,keys & modes.

But this is not "for everyone"..

I researched the BPM of hit songs a few years ago. The vast majority of top 10 songs have been at 120 BPM. For me this is good news because 120 BPM just feels right for me. I like to start there and then tweak up or down a little, usually up, when jamming. 120 BPM is also something people can dance to. If you go much faster than that it becomes difficult to dance to it.

I have a piece that I am working on getting out of my head and on to a recording. I have been tossing the idea around for a while now and someone would use the song as an intro to a sort of internal internet show for where I work. That one so far is feeling like it will be 130 or 135 BPM.

There is no "ideal" BPM. They also orient themselves less to the heart than to the soul of the music.

I gravitate to the range 80 - 90bpm. I like things to sound sleazy, swampy and funky 😎

Quote from JEverly

I researched the BPM of hit songs a few years ago. The vast majority of top 10 songs have been at 120 BPM. For me this is good news because 120 BPM just feels right for me. I like to start there and then tweak up or down a little, usually up, when jamming. 120 BPM is also something people can dance to. If you go much faster than that it becomes difficult to dance to it.

I have a piece that I am working on getting out of my head and on to a recording. I have been tossing the idea around for a while now and someone would use the song as an intro to a sort of internal internet show for where I work. That one so far is feeling like it will be 130 or 135 BPM.

The reason for many hit songs being in 120 is sheer laziness. All DAW i know open new sessions in 120bpm.

I dig lazy! Rock on 120!

There’s something universal about 120 bpm.

The right tempo for a cardiac massage is 120 bpm as well.

Internationally.

Quote from Kim_Olesen

The reason for many hit songs being in 120 is sheer laziness. All DAW i know open new sessions in 120bpm.

Is it that, or did the DAW manufacturers start defaulting to 120 BPM because it was so popular? Chicken or egg?

Everything from 120-180 for me.

Quote from JEverly

Is it that, or did the DAW manufacturers start defaulting to 120 BPM because it was so popular? Chicken or egg?

Maybe check BPM on hits from before computers were mainstream in music production.

There are TONS of pre-DAW 120 BPM hits.

I enjoy playing at different tempos, but every well-written song sounds better at a slower speed to me.

Quote from Kim_Olesen

Maybe check BPM on hits from before computers were mainstream in music production.

I went back pretty far when I did the analysis. I was actually a bit amazed at how many hits there have been at the 120 BPM tempo. I found some things that showed songs in groups by tempo. The farther away from 120 BPM you moved the lower ranked the song was.

I knew a guy with AF that couldn't play in time

Quote from paddyc

I knew a guy with AF that couldn't play in time

I have played with a few drummers that had this issue. Those were painful times.

120 is Marching tempo.

Your general walking pace can vary day to day - but not by very much.