Guitar skills
BPM stands for beats per minute, and it’s the tempo of a song. Knowing how to find it is a skill worth having, for practicing and for writing your own music. Here are the quickest ways I know to find the BPM of any song.
It starts with finding the beat, so we’ll begin there, then move on to tapping out the tempo and looking it up.
Finding the beat comes more easily to some of us than to others. With practice, I assure you, anyone can do it.
Find the Beat First
A beat is the basic unit of rhythm: the steady, underlying pulse you feel in a song. If you can tap your foot along with it, that’s the beat!
The best way to get good at finding the beat is to listen to music and tap along.
- Pick a simple song, maybe one of your favorites, and listen without distractions.
- Put on headphones, turn up the bass, and focus on the lower instruments, the bass and drums. In most styles of music, the beat is easiest to hear down there.
- Clap your hands, tap your foot, or bob your head along with the pulse. You’re looking for a steady pulse that goes with the song.
- Try it with several songs, and practice a little every day.
Don’t worry if it feels shaky at first. It gets easier over time. If you’d like more help, this video on finding the beat walks through it step by step.
Tap for Tempo
To find the actual BPM, tap the beat into a BPM calculator.
- Feel the beat of your song. Bob your head or tap your foot along.
- Tap that beat into the calculator, with your mouse or the space bar on your computer.
- The calculator measures the BPM from your taps.
Try it with different styles of music to see how the BPM changes from one to the next.
No computer handy? There are tap-tempo apps for your phone that do the same thing, such as BPM Tap for Android and Tap That Tempo for iPhone.
Use a Metronome With Tap Tempo
Some metronomes let you tap the beat right into them. Find the pulse of the song you want to play, tap it into the metronome, and then practice along at that exact BPM. If yours doesn’t have tap tempo, start the metronome and keep adjusting it until it matches the song.
The metronome app I use practically every day has tap tempo. You’ll find it in best metronomes for guitar.
Look It Up
If all else fails, go to GetSongBPM, type in the name of a popular song, and the site will give you its BPM. For example, search for the ever-legendary “Hotel California” and choose the Eagles’ version, and you’ll find it’s around 75 BPM. You can do this with almost any song you can think of. I haven’t found a song it couldn’t find yet.
Get Used to How Tempos Feel
It’s good to get used to what different tempos feel like. That’s useful both for practicing and for composing your own music.
If you’d like to learn more about BPM, watch my video Understanding BPM: Music Theory for Beginners.
What’s the BPM of the song you’re working on? Let me know in the comments below.
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