Moderato Tempo in BPM
Moderato is commonly given as 108 to 120 BPM, the middle of the tempo scale and the point where music stops feeling slow and has not yet become fast.
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 114 BPM, the middle of the Moderato range. Drag the tempo anywhere between 108 and 120 to hear the whole range.
What Moderato means
Moderato translates as moderate. Moderato is the least descriptive of the markings and the most useful as a reference point: it is defined by what it is not. It sits above the walking pace of Andante and below the liveliness of Allegro, which makes it the natural anchor when you are trying to place an unfamiliar marking on the scale.
It is also frequently used as a qualifier rather than a marking of its own, as in Allegro moderato, which asks for a lively tempo held back a little. Read that way, Moderato is less a speed than a brake.
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 108 to 120BPM 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 Moderato 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 Moderato 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 Moderato?
Commonly 108 to 120 BPM, sitting between Andante and Allegro. Some tables begin it at 96 and others end it at 112.
What does Allegro moderato mean?
A lively tempo, held back. It asks for Allegro character at the slower end of the Allegro range rather than for a tempo exactly between the two markings.
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: .