Adagio Tempo in BPM
Adagio is commonly given as 66 to 76 BPM. The word means at ease, which is an instruction about character as much as about speed.
Timing is scheduled on the Web Audio clock, so the beat stays steady even while the page is busy. Tap the tempo button in time with a song to set the BPM by ear. Keyboard: space starts and stops, up and down arrows change the tempo by 1 (hold shift for 10), escape stops.
The metronome above starts at 71 BPM, the middle of the Adagio range. Drag the tempo anywhere between 66 and 76 to hear the whole range.
What Adagio means
Adagio translates as at ease, comfortable. Adagio sits between Largo and Andante in almost every range table, and it is the marking most often attached to the slow movement of a classical sonata or symphony. Because the term describes comfort rather than a number, it is also the marking where performance tradition varies most: recordings of the same Adagio movement can differ by twenty beats per minute without either being wrong.
For practice, Adagio is a useful target speed rather than a destination. A fast passage taken at Adagio gives you enough time to place every note deliberately, which is the point of slow practice, and the tempo is still fast enough that the musical line does not fall apart.
Why the BPM range is a convention, not a measurement
This is the part most tempo tables leave out. Italian tempo words were in general use for about a century before Maelzel's metronome made a beats-per-minute number practical at all, and the composers who wrote them never defined them numerically. Every published range, including the 66 to 76BPM given here, is somebody's later reconstruction, and different sources disagree by ten or twenty beats per minute at the edges.
Treat the number as a region and the word as the instruction. On a site that computes frequencies to two decimals it is worth being explicit about which figures are exact and which are conventional: the frequencies are exact, these ranges are not.
Where Adagio sits against the other markings
| Marking | Means | Commonly quoted BPM |
|---|---|---|
| Largo | broad, wide | 40 to 60 |
| Adagio | at ease, comfortable | 66 to 76 |
| Andante | walking | 76 to 108 |
| Moderato | moderate | 108 to 120 |
| Allegro | cheerful, lively | 120 to 168 |
| Vivace | lively, vivacious | 168 to 176 |
| Presto | quick | 168 to 200 |
| Prestissimo | as quick as possible | 200 to 240 |
Exact tempos inside the Adagio range
Each of these opens the metronome already running at that tempo, with its own notes on what the speed is used for.
Frequently asked questions
How many BPM is Adagio?
Commonly 66 to 76 BPM. Some tables extend it down to 55 and others up to 80, so treat the range as a region rather than a boundary.
Is Adagio slower than Andante?
Yes. Adagio is normally placed below Andante, which usually starts around 76 BPM. Adagio asks for ease, Andante for a walking pace.
Other tempo markings
More timing tools
Frequencies on this page are computed at build time from twelve tone equal temperament with A4 = 440 Hz, using the twelfth root of two (about 1.059463) per semitone. Nothing is typed in by hand. See the full method and sources. Maintained by FusionStudios. Last reviewed: .