Song Structure & BPM Reference

Tempo, feel, and section length by BPM

BPM	Marking	Feel	1 bar	8 bars	16 bars	32 bars	Typical song
60	Larghetto	Slow but a little more forward-moving than Largo — tender, unhurried verses.	4s	0:32	1:04	2:08	6:56
70	Adagio	Slow and expressive — reflective, emotional, often intimate arrangements.	3.43s	0:27	0:55	1:50	5:57
80	Andante	A walking pace — easy-going mid-tempo ballads and singer-songwriter pop.	3s	0:24	0:48	1:36	5:12
90	Andante	A walking pace — easy-going mid-tempo ballads and singer-songwriter pop.	2.67s	0:21	0:43	1:25	4:37
100	Andante	A walking pace — easy-going mid-tempo ballads and singer-songwriter pop.	2.4s	0:19	0:38	1:17	4:10
110	Moderato	A comfortable, moderate groove — versatile mid-tempo pop and rock.	2.18s	0:17	0:35	1:10	3:47
120	Allegro	Bright and upbeat — mainstream pop, rock, and radio-friendly dance.	2s	0:16	0:32	1:04	3:28
130	Allegro	Bright and upbeat — mainstream pop, rock, and radio-friendly dance.	1.85s	0:15	0:30	0:59	3:12
140	Vivace	Fast and energetic — uptempo dance, punk, and driving rock.	1.71s	0:14	0:27	0:55	2:58
150	Vivace	Fast and energetic — uptempo dance, punk, and driving rock.	1.6s	0:13	0:26	0:51	2:46
160	Vivace	Fast and energetic — uptempo dance, punk, and driving rock.	1.5s	0:12	0:24	0:48	2:36
170	Vivace	Fast and energetic — uptempo dance, punk, and driving rock.	1.41s	0:11	0:23	0:45	2:27
180	Presto	Very fast — drum & bass, hardcore, and other high-energy styles.	1.33s	0:11	0:21	0:43	2:19

“Typical song” is the 104-bar arrangement described below, timed at that row’s tempo. Every other column is that tempo’s own bar length, and multiples of it.

How these numbers are derived

A bar’s duration is fixed by two things: the tempo, and how many beats are in the bar. In common time (4 beats per bar), seconds per bar work out to 4 × 60 / bpm. At 120 BPM that’s a clean 2 seconds; at 90 BPM it stretches to roughly 2.67 seconds. Every duration in the table above — the single bar, the 8/16/32-bar blocks, and the full typical-song total — comes from running that same calculation through computeStructureTiming(), the function behind the Song Structure Timer, not a separately maintained set of numbers.

The tempo marking and feel in the second and third columns come from classifyBpm(), the same function behind the BPM to Mood & Feel Guide. It places a tempo into one of the standard Italian tempo-marking bands — Largo through Presto — each paired with the general feel that range tends to carry in a song, from Largo’s spacious ballads up through Presto’s breakneck energy.

The “typical song” column times a single common pop/rock arrangement — an 8-bar intro, two 16-bar verses, two 16-bar choruses, an 8-bar bridge, one more 16-bar chorus, and an 8-bar outro, 104bars in total — at each tempo in the table. It isn’t the only arrangement shape a song can take; if your own song’s section lengths differ, the 8/16/32-bar columns give you the building blocks to add up its actual bar count yourself, or the Song Structure Timer will total any arrangement you enter directly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do the tempo markings and feel descriptions come from?

The same classifyBpm() function behind the BPM to Mood & Feel Guide — the standard Italian tempo-marking scale (Largo through Presto), each paired with the general feel that range tends to carry in a song. Nothing on this page is a separate, hand-maintained description.

Why does an 8-bar section take a different amount of time at every tempo?

A bar's duration is fixed by its tempo and time signature: seconds per bar equal beats-per-bar times 60, divided by the BPM. Every duration on this page comes from computeStructureTiming() — the same function the Song Structure Timer runs — applied to a block of the stated bar count at each tempo, in common time (4 beats per bar).

What arrangement is the 'typical full song' column based on?

An 8-bar intro, two 16-bar verses, two 16-bar choruses, an 8-bar bridge, one more 16-bar chorus, and an 8-bar outro — 104 bars total. It's a common shape, not the only one; use the 8/16/32-bar columns directly if your own arrangement's bar counts differ.

Why does a slower tempo take longer for the exact same bar count?

Because a bar's duration depends on tempo, not on how many bars it contains — the same 16 bars simply take longer to play through at a slower tempo. This is the entire reason two songs with identical arrangements on paper can run very different lengths once a tempo is attached.

All timings assume common time (4 beats per bar). A different time signature changes bar length — use the Song Structure Timerdirectly if your song isn’t in 4/4.

Use it with

Song Structure Timer— time your own section-by-section arrangement and tempo exactly, instead of reading the nearest row here.
BPM to Mood & Feel Guide— look up a single tempo’s marking and feel on its own.
Setlist Timer— once you know how long each song runs, add gaps between songs and a start time to plan a full set.
How Long Is a Chorus, Really? Timing Song Structure at a Given BPM — the worked walkthrough behind this table, including how to plan an arrangement backward from a target runtime.