Beats per minute for music 🎵

[Frizzbomb67]

I’m trying to put together a playlist to help me find the right pace. I think I’m going too fast at the moment. Is 120 beats per minute a good beat for a beginners jog?

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate]

120 beats/cadence/ steps a minute is fine for jogging, you could install what I have which is a metromone app, set it at anything from 1 to 300 beats a minute, however, for running, it would be best set from 120 to 190 BPM depending on the the runners stride.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Do you know what cadence you’re running at? If you need to beat match then you’d really want to know that. If you don’t have the electronics to find out, count your paces over a known time, say 30 seconds.

[Frizzbomb67 Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

I’ve just switched from the treadmill to outdoor running and my 160 bpm tunes were too fast. I certainly couldn’t talk although I finished the run W5R1. The average cadence for that run was 131spm but that included the 2 sets of 5 minute walking.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate in reply to Frizzbomb67]

Sounds like 140 could suit then... you’ll soon adapt to the outdoors.

[Plattszo Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

Yes. My average cadence is around 135 and I use a 140bpm playlist!! You will know as soon as you start running next time if it is right for you. Good luck!!

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

I just have songs that match the way I run, and what sort of run it is, not the other way around... for example...when I run to Abba ( sorry) Chiquitita... the,1 ,2,3,4 beat is perfect for steady even running.. whereas, Waterloo...is what gets me over the last kilometre , in style!

[Gordygirl Graduate]

I changed my playlist to a 120bpm for my run yesterday and it was definitely better although it did slow my pace down slightly from my previous runs when I had a 140 to 160bpm playlist

[Frizzbomb67 Graduate in reply to Gordygirl]

That’s good to know. Thanks. I’m definitely faster on the treadmill but now I’m on the road I want to go the distance and the tunes really help me get into my stride. It’s no coincidence I have Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive half way through this playlist 😂

[Krazycatlady Graduate]

I laugh at my playlist as I have put songs in at certain points to help me carry on

So I start my warm up with Walk by the Foo fighters

About 12 minutes in when my head tells me to give up running I play Don’t stop Believing

Then at 20 minutes I have Queen Don’t stop me know

And at 4.5 K mark I have Faithless Insomnia and it is normally my fast K split (I love that song )

[Frizzbomb67 Graduate in reply to Krazycatlady]

Sounds like a fun playlist 😂

[Flattttt Graduate]

The very best song I have for running to the song’s temp is 139 bpm. So Wow you are spot on with 140. !

I find it incredibly helpful and supportive to have a song at a good tempo for running and I run right to the beat. It keeps me moving it’s great.

The last time I did this, my perfect song was let her dance as performed by Marshall Crenshaw. (I think Bobby Fuller wrote this one.)

youtu.be/jvtnkDKWt4w(Not working as expected?)

Vertigo by U2 is also good.

Another key aspects of finding the right song in my experience is ***a very straightforward beat***.

A very clear backbeat,, a snare on every beat one, two, three, four, or even the old classic dance thing with the kick on each beat (“Four on the floor”) — all those work well. The Marshall Crenshaw song has a clear prominent beat that’s easy to hear and therefore run to.

Sometimes I’ll simply put the song on repeat, and keep running along with the song, at that same tempo of course, over and over. That’s very effective and leads to great running consistency.

and by picking a great song for some reason I don’t get bored for quite a while.

Actually, using the same song helps me to tune things out and just focus on running at a great consistent rate it’s very supportive using the same song on repeat believe it or not.

After a number of listen sometimes I will Move on.

One trick is to not use the same song two days in a row, and even to stop using the same song on day one just before you get sick of it.

I made the mistake of overdoing the Marshall Crenshaw song, and now I don’t particularly feel like running to it. I had to give it a rest but now I can use it again.

So be a little careful and don’t overdo any one song!

I’m experimenting with having a list of songs of *roughly* the same tempo, but they’re not *exactly* the same. I hit play and if the tempo of the first song isn’t working for me, I skip to the next song and keep skipping until I find a song that *matches* my energy level and whatever amount of hill seems to be in front of me.

I seem to have the best luck simply sticking with that song and playing it over and over until I feel like moving on .

If I’m using a playlist, I do Play Skip play Skip 5 seconds of each song , running a few steps of each until I’m on a good match again.

it’s really great and very effective

Another way is to do the same thing skip song search with my main playlist, but there are so many songs that don’t fit the bill it’s more tedious to skip through five or 10 or 15 songs until I find one that works.

Right now I’ve got a decent size running playlist that’s working here it is. I’ll keep adding to it as I get bored, so it should improve:

open.spotify.com/playlist/1...

Another method is to type the number of beats per minute as a search term in Spotify, and other people have made lists at those specific tempos.

Some are designed for aerobics and some are very specific and all are on the exact same tempo.

Others cover a small range of similar temps, kind of like my playlist which works fine as long as you’re willing to do the skipping

For example, searching for “140 BPM”, or “BPM 140” works pretty well in Spotify. If you are in different shape than I, then you may want to search for 150 BPM or perhaps 120 or 135 I suppose.

It’s also really smart to pick a song that you personally like (that has the tempo you need, and clear drumming). It’s just a whole lot more enjoyable if you actually personally like the song.

Funny enough, the last time I ran I just use my lame main playlist because I love all the songs on it and mentally enjoyed the songs that I was listening to.

but after about a song and a half I realized that I really wasn’t being supported in my physical motion by the tempo of the song.

So I relented and went to my running playlist, and skipped through until I found a song that was just the right tempo for the way I was running on that day.

Presto, it was suddenly much easier to do my running. It really does improve performance and consistency.

This experience really demonstrated for me the power of an appropriate song to support exercise.

One last little trick is to create a playlist based on a subset of your current main playlist, or to go to Google to find songs at proper tempos and cull some good ones from that.

The first method probably seems pretty obvious. You start running, and play a little bit of each song in your main playlist until you find one that works. Save that one song to a new playlist.

Then go back to your main playlist and do this a few more times until you have a small list of good songs. That’s what I did.

Another trick that I did once, but unfortunately I’ve lost the playlist but whatever, it’s a good method. Is to go to Google and type in 139 bpm for example and you can also then try it with 140, 141 that sort of thing. According to your resilience for the process!

When you do this, you’ll discover that there are websites that have database devoted to this exact process. They show list upon list, dozens or even hundreds of songs all at the exact tempo you’re looking for. Then you write down the ones that you personally like, and create a playlist of those in Spotify.

Here’s an example:

getsongbpm.com/tempo/139-bpm

Although my explanation has been a little lengthy, in practice building a good short playlist is pretty quick. You can set aside a few minutes to get this done, or simply do it while you’re running. IME.

All the best,

Flattttt

PS, my neighborhood is pretty flat with modest inclines and declines. That’s probably why 139 bpm works.

For the gentle uphills ... sometimes I switch to something a touch slower!

In a different neighborhood I probably would need something much slower for steeper hills.

Good luck and I know you’ll find some great songs that match your perfect running tempos.!

[Frizzbomb67 Graduate in reply to Flattttt]

Thanks for the detailed reply. Much appreciated 😊. I made a playlist of 120bpm and 140bpm and tried them both. 120, I discovered, is my walking pace so was too slow. 140 was still a bit slow so I couldn’t run to the beat but what it did do was make me SLOW DOWN. I ran at a slower pace which made my breathing easier and allowed me to run for longer. At the end I felt I had a bit left to give which has never happened before. I think I’ll try a 150bpm playlist and try that. It’s a really good excuse to listen to a load of corny songs and old favourites!

[Flattttt Graduate in reply to Frizzbomb67]

Yes but it’s really more than that! When you feel you could run longer, or even feel that you could run forever, you’re probably in zone two. Zone two builds more mitochondria in your cells. It’s like having extra engines.

If you build more of those overtime, you’ll be coming faster runner just by virtue of having more mitochondria. Running slowly makes you faster.

I love running faster too. I forget the numbers but I think it may be as high as 156 that I enjoy running speedy. I consider taking the advice of many advanced runners and trainers which is to take which is to spend like 80% of your training in zone 2 (easy to hold a conversation).

But hey back to the matter at hand which is running and beats per minute!

120 bpm is a classic walking pace. In fact many many songs are between 119 and 121 or 122 bpm. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the most common BPM out there.

It certainly feels great for a walk and I’ve used it before. I actually saved many playlists, some at 113 some at 117 others 120 etc. Somehow I’ve lost those which is a little bit of a bummer. But I found them useful when I was doing walking before I got into running.

Once again, it was different paces for different energy levels and topography. Although I find it useful to push myself a bit and stick with one tempo even if I start going uphill. I can usually rise to the challenge LOL

[Flattttt Graduate]

Hey, just one more thing while I’m thinking about it.

But this may not matter since I now have lists of songs in a range??

Anyway, I’m surprised at how many BPM listings are incorrect. Last time I made playlist it seems that it was right on the money. But lately I check things and I see errors. Mostly if I Google a song. Maybe not so much on the giant data bases of songs I think those are more accurate. I think they are used by people who remix songs and stuff so I think they’re pretty accurate.

If you want to nail some of this down, and sometimes I’ve Felt the need When I want to collate songs and make sure they’re all the same or similar BPM, there’s an app called liveBPM that is quite helpful. It calculates BPM by tapping your finger, it can also sense the BPM of a song whileIt’s playing on the phone (it Monitors the drums) and it’s very good.

It’s on the iPhone. There are others for all operating systems

[Frizzbomb67 Graduate in reply to Flattttt]

Perfect! Just what I need. Thanks