What is your go to tempo?

Merlin5

Gold Member
I was sitting down to practise, opened liveBPM on my phone and just started playing a straight hi-hat, snare and kick groove. I noticed the tempo was 107 and remained there. Stopped and started a few times with tea drinking breaks in between. Each time I started playing a groove, my mind told me to play a little slower because it would feel laid back, or other times to notch it up to something brighter and a bit more uptempo. So sometimes it would be 102bpm and remain there, sometimes 105 and remain there, and sometimes I felt like playing a bit brighter tempo and it was 114bpm. I remember a drummer saying to me years ago that most drummers like playing around 95bpm. I dunno, I guess it depends on your energy levels that day. But my tempo range that I feel most 'groovy' at for want of a better description, seems to be anything between 102 to 114bpm. 102bpm came up the most times though. What is yours?
 
95 bpm? That seems a bit slow to me. It will be interesting to see what others say. I think when if I just hop on a kit and just start playing, it ends up being probably closer to 120 bpm.

Some of it probably has a lot to do with what type of music a person usually plays and listens to.
 
I was sitting down to practise, opened liveBPM on my phone and just started playing a straight hi-hat, snare and kick groove. I noticed the tempo was 107 and remained there. Stopped and started a few times with tea drinking breaks in between. Each time I started playing a groove, my mind told me to play a little slower because it would feel laid back, or other times to notch it up to something brighter and a bit more uptempo. So sometimes it would be 102bpm and remain there, sometimes 105 and remain there, and sometimes I felt like playing a bit brighter tempo and it was 114bpm. I remember a drummer saying to me years ago that most drummers like playing around 95bpm. I dunno, I guess it depends on your energy levels that day. But my tempo range that I feel most 'groovy' at for want of a better description, seems to be anything between 102 to 114bpm. 102bpm came up the most times though. .... What is yours?

Interesting topic.

I just did a tap test on my metronome app, and I kept ending up around 107 myself. Cool.


T.
 
Just a side note:

The magic tempo that makes all human feet tap and makes all human butts move is between 105 and 107 beats per minute.
The Bee Gees figured this out in the 1970's.

If you don't believe me, the next time you are in a venue with an audience, when there is no music playing,
start hitting the bass drum at 105 BPM and the snare drum on the 2 and 4 and watch what happens.


.
 
Just a side note:

The magic tempo that makes all human feet tap and makes all human butts move is between 105 and 107 beats per minute.
The Bee Gees figured this out in the 1970's.

.

They teach you to time chest compressions for CPR by humming "Stayin' Alive." Preferably in your head, because people might be watching.
 
Just arriving and sitting at the drum set, without a metronome, I'd say 110 or even less.

But, once I turn on the metronome, I start at 130. Because, the music I play with others is always way faster. And, I find myself struggling to go that fast, while I'm drowning in sweat.
 
120, 130 during fills, then 115 when I have to sing.

I also like to count off at a diferent tempo.




Sincerely, a lot of amatuer drummers :)
 
I'm fond of 111 for a straight ahead rock groove.
 
Just a side note:

The magic tempo that makes all human feet tap and makes all human butts move is between 105 and 107 beats per minute.
The Bee Gees figured this out in the 1970's.

If you don't believe me, the next time you are in a venue with an audience, when there is no music playing,
start hitting the bass drum at 105 BPM and the snare drum on the 2 and 4 and watch what happens.
.

I have a good friend who writes music for commercials (also my teacher). He does all the instruments required.. anyway short story.. he recently completed four demo's for consideration, the agency picked the one they liked best and told him he had to drop the tempo from 105 to 104... (I couldn't really hear much difference) but for the agency that was their magic number.
 
Just a side note:

The magic tempo that makes all human feet tap and makes all human butts move is between 105 and 107 beats per minute.
The Bee Gees figured this out in the 1970's.

If you don't believe me, the next time you are in a venue with an audience, when there is no music playing,
start hitting the bass drum at 105 BPM and the snare drum on the 2 and 4 and watch what happens.


.

Yup that's true! I believe I've read somewhere also that 120 BPM is good for music to do aerobic exercise to since that BPM keeps your hearbeats at an optimum level.

On topic - funny others mention 107 and stuff. Mine is 108!
 
ford-tempo-AWD.jpg
 
Lol.

That's interesting about the company wanted them to drop the tempo from 105 to 104!

I have been clocking a lot of my favourite tunes lately to get into the habit of memorising tempo's and what I find really weird are fractional tempo's keep popping up, like 83.5 and 72.5. Surely 82 or 84 would have sufficed?!

In terms of our natural tempo it would be cool to monitor our heart rate as well and see if there is a correlation...
 
Probably around 80 or 90. Slow and groovy, yeah baby!
 
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