TEMPO INDICATIONS


There are different words to indicate how fast you have to play a musical piece. In classical music we often use Italian words and in pop music we mostly use English words.
In the example below you see Adagio, that means slowly, and then: quarternote = 80. This means that you have to play in een speed of 80 beats per minute, so there will be 80 quarter notes in 1 minute.



Words about the speed, wich we see a lot in classical music:

allegro = fast and lively
andante = moderate speed
adagio = slowly

rit. riten. or ritenuto = slow down; that means gradually decrease the speed.
a tempo = play again in the first tempo.

The sign with de dot in the last bar, we call a "fermate". The meaning of a fermate is: you have to hold this note a little longer than the noted value.