MEASURING TEMPO (From Callerlink 170 June 2005)
By: Jeff Garbutt, Western Australia

Tempo is probably one of the most important things we need to get right with our music. It sets the pace that our dancers move to. Too fast and the dancers are run off their feet, too slow and the movement just drags. Either way your dancers will wear out rather quickly. Having the correct tempo will actually sustain your dancers' energy reserves much longer.. And most callers I have communicated with agree that the optimum tempo for square dancing is 126 BPM. 

Why is tempo so important? The reason is because of the length of our stride when we walk. We teach dancers to take a step on each beat of the music. And the length of our stride is therefore proportional to the number of beats per minute of the music. Too fast and they need to take short choppy steps, too slow and they need to take long drawn out steps. Either way it is uncomfortable and very tiring for your dancers. Using correct tempo makes dancing more natural and less tiring.

And in these days where we use mp3 players and minidisks to take music to the dance - it is important that we record the music at the correct tempo. It therefore becomes important to accurately measure the tempo of the music as you record it onto your non-vinyl media.

So what options do we have for measuring tempo?

THE HUMAN METRONOME:

No - it's not Parkinson's that makes "Shaking Steve" do that trick with his foot. He is simply using his human metronome to measure the tempo of the music. I believe that with practice most of us can accurately sense the tempo of the music. We might not be able to give a readout of what the tempo is exactly - but we can sense when the tempo is too fast, too slow or just right - and we can do it within +/- 3 BPM. 

And there are other indicators that you can pick up from the body language of your dancers themselves. (When all your dancers start falling down with exhaustion after only 16 beats of music I think you may have a problem with tempo.)

Test yourself out and see how you go. 

STANDARD METRONOME:

By standard metronomes I mean the type that produce a repeating beat - whether it be a mechanical one or an electronic one. The trick with these is to keep adjusting the metronome setting - or the turntable setting - until the two devices are in sync. It takes a bit of practice - but it is not difficult to achieve. The thing to watch out for is to make sure the metronome you purchase is calibrated down to 1 BPM. I have seen an electronic metronome that only displays to 5 BPM - not good enough.

TAP TEMPO METRONOME:

I reckon that the "Tap Tempo" metronomes are the easiest to master. But when you think about it they are only really an extension of a human metronome - except that they come with readout. With these devices you simply tap your finger on a button in time to the music beat. 

Some "Tap Tempo Metronomes (TTM)" give a dynamic readout - giving a continuously updating readout as you tap away. Others give an ongoing average, and smooth out any variation in your tapping over time. The best ones give both types of readouts.

If you have an electric keyboard at home there is a good chance it has a tap tempo built into it.

SOFTWARE METRONOMES:

There are two basic types of computer programs available. 
" The type that actually measures the BPM of music.
" The type that mimic the function of a metronome.

The first type (measuring type) often come packaged as part of some other software such as Hanhurst's "Digital Music Magician". For those using "WINAMP" there is a good BPM "add on" from AtomixMP3. These seem to work best when a strong dominant beat is present - and can be fooled by syncopated beats.

The second type simply mimics the operation of a normal or tap tempo metronome. I use a "tap tempo" type created by Rick Reel that is available at: http://www.all8.com/tools/bpm.htm

STOP WATCH AND CALCULATOR

A standard singing call figure is 64 beats. So if you use a stopwatch to time how long it takes to play a 64 beat phrase, simply divide this time (in minutes) by 64 to get a result. 

However, there are one or two tricks with this method:

You need to be able to accurately pick out the start and end of a 64 beat phrase. I suggest you avoid the opener and closer if you have trouble picking out the transition from the intro and the start of the first opener (and likewise for the closer and tag).

You need to convert the time into something I call "decimal minutes". Take your stopwatch reading (in seconds) and divide by sixty. 60 seconds becomes 1.00 minutes, 30 seconds becomes 0.50 minutes, 15 seconds becomes 0.25 minutes etc

Example:

Your stopwatch gives you a reading of 29 seconds for a standard 64 figure.

29 seconds = 29/60 = 0.483 minutes

Therefore BPM = 64 / 0.483 = 132 BPM 

There is one major drawback with this technique. To achieve an accuracy of +/- 1 BPM you need to be able to measure the time accurate to within 0.2 of a second. Still - if you have nothing else it will work.

FOOTNOTE

Many records don't have constant tempo throughout. So don't just measure tempo in one spot for a short duration. Do a tempo check in several places, and for long periods of at least 10 seconds.