Handy Charts

Tempo Terms

The following table is a list of terms used for specifying the tempo in a piece of music. There is no standard for so-called metronome marking (M.M.), and it varies from source to source, with some obvious overlap. The following table shows the range of these values, as found in various sources. They are listed in order of increasing tempo, more or less.

Term	Meaning	M.M. (bpm)
Larghissimo	Very, very slow	<20
Grave	Very slow and solemn	20-40
Lentissimo	Very slow	40-48
Largo	Slow, broad & stately	35-60
Adagissimo	Very slow and calm - slower than adagio	40-52
Lento	Slow, slightly faster than largo	40-68
Larghetto	Slow, slightly faster than largo	50-66
Adagio	Slow and leisurely	55-76
Adagietto	Rather slow	65-76
Andante moderato	Slower than andante	69-78
Andante	Moderate - at a walking pace	72-108
Andantino	Slightly faster than andante	77-106
Marcia moderato	Moderately, as a march	83-85
Moderato	Moderately	86-120
Allegretto	Moderately fast - slower than allegro	98-128
Allegro	Fast, quick, and bright	109-168
Vivace	Lively and briskly	132-168
Vivo	Lively and briskly	146-168
Vivacissimo	Very fast and lively	140-150
Allegrissimo	Very, very fast	150-200
Presto	Extremely fast	168-200
Prestissimo	Extremely fast, as quickly as possible	178-208

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