Preferred tempo reconsidered.

Abstract

In the current literature preferred tempo is usually located around 100 bpm (600 ms) (Fraisse, 1982). We will give a review of more recent experimental evidence and present a series of experiments and analyses of existing data that show that preferred tempo is located at a significantly faster speed. It will be shown that it is located somewhere between 120 and 130 bpm, so 500 ms (120 bpm) is more realistic as characteristic period for preferred tempo. The existence of this optimum in tempo perception and production will be used to support the resonance theory of tempo perception (Van Noorden & Moelants, 1999), according to which tempo perception and production is closely related to natural movement, with humans functioning as a kind of resonating systems with a natural frequency.