Are you music literate?

[Mari]

I would like to be able to work out beats per minute when I'm listening to tracks & trying to choose ones that suit my horse's paces. I have a metronome but can't seem to get the hang of it accurately enough. Does anyone know of a device / computer program that will work out BPM automatically?

 

[JustKickOn]

Google is your friend
http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-the-Beats-Per-Minute-(BPM)-of-a-Song

http://www.vocalist.org.uk/beats_per_minute_reference_chart.html

 

[Waffles]

I am a professional musician who is very familiar with metronomes....

Basically 60 on a metronome is one beat per second, 120 is 2 beats per second. I do quite a bit of conducting and between movements in a symphony I have to think about what speed is coming next very quickly (in my head) so that I can beat at the right speed. It may sound simplistic but saying "one elephant, two elephant, 3 elephant" in a relaxed normal voice in your head is roughly mm = 60 so one beat per second. With a bit of experience you can get to work out most speeds like that!

 

[Mari]

Thanks Waffles I'll have another go (sighs!) The more I try the worse I seem to get!

 

[Mari]

RiderLizzie - just what I was looking for. Thanks.

 

[Trish C]

Mmm, I have an internal metronome (due to playing a music which is intrinsically linked to dance!) But I would imagine using a metronome like the metronomeonline.com would be handy. Just set it going and click on different speeds till you hit the right one!

Also, if you have an iphone or an android there's a metronome app that you can tap the beats out on and it will tell you the bpm.

 

[mulledwhine]

Never understood how people cannot hear a beat can you count one two in trot ? If you can find some music that has a one two beat

I am lucky in that I have a natural ear, OH is tune deaf so I explain it to him in the chugs if his tractors

I really think every one has the ability but you have to find what works for you xxx

 

[Trish C]

Mulledwhine, hearing a beat and being able to figure out BPM are two very different things, and being tone deaf is related to neither

 

[mulledwhine]

Forgot to say I got stage 4 piano ( not great I know) without being able to read a bit of music

 

[Luci07]

Forgot to say I got stage 4 piano ( not great I know) without being able to read a bit of music

How on earth did you escape the dreaded theory exams? Much hated scales etc but had to be done...are you one of the lucky people who can hear both right and left hand?

I think of four time as a march or walk, three time is waltz or in my mind canter and two time is trot.

 

[Lolo]

Never understood how people cannot hear a beat can you count one two in trot ? If you can find some music that has a one two beat

Funniest thing I've seen was my sister cantering round an arena trying to count in time with the beat- she was hopelessly out, and just couldn't tell... She was a really good dancer when she was younger (til she was 11) and is a really decent rider... Just no sense of rhythm!

 

[Trish C]

How on earth did you escape the dreaded theory exams? Much hated scales etc but had to be done...are you one of the lucky people who can hear both right and left hand?

I think of four time as a march or walk, three time is waltz or in my mind canter and two time is trot.

With most boards you don't have to do theory exams until you get to a higher grade (Grade 5 AB I think). I'm an Irish musician, and because Irish music is an aural tradition a lot of the world's top musicians don't read music. I do, to me it's my second language as my classical-musician mother taught me to read and write music along with learning to read and write English!

I can understand the confusion with canter to be honest, as musicologically speaking it isn't three true beats as the third beat is elongated. That's why most DtM tests use a fairly fast common time for canter where the strong beats fall on the first beat of each set of the canter's '3', and not actually 3/4, 9/8 etc

 

[Waffles]

You don't have to have any theory up to and including grade 5 in Associated Board exams!