The Tempo Counter tool can be found by clicking the “Tempo Counter” item in the “Tools” menu at the top of the home page.  It helps find the tempo of a song that you’re currently listening to as well as listing dance styles that can be comfortably danced to that tempo and meter.

Entering a Tempo

There are two general methods of entering a tempo.  By tapping out the rhythm using the ‘Count’ (A) button or by manually entering a tempo value (B/C).

Tapping out the Tempo

You can tap once per measure or once per beat, whichever you are more comfortable with.  You can choose between these options by clicking on the appropriate choice on the toggle button (D). For clicking per measure, use the dropdown in the measure per minute (MPM) control to choose the number of beats per measure.

Then listen to the music and click the count button once per measure (or beat).  After the first click, the button name will change from ‘Click…’ to ‘Again’ to indicate that the program is waiting for you to click again.  Watch the value in the tempo displays (B/C).  If the beat of the song is consistent, this value should settle down to a consistent value although it will probably move around by a little bit just due to normal variation in song and tapping.

You can start again by waiting a few seconds.  The count button will chance back to ‘Click…’ from ‘Again’ and you can start tapping out a completely different tempo.

Entering the tempo Manually

You can enter the tempo manually by typing the measures per minute directly into the tempo display control (C) or by typing the beats per minute into the BPM control (B).

The Meter Menu (C)

You can change the meter that you are tracking by choosing 2/4, 3/4, or 4/4 in the meter drop-down menu (C).  If there is an existing value in the tempo display it will be converted to reflect the new meter while preserving the underlying tempo in beats per minute.

The Dance Style List (E)

Once you have defined a tempo and meter, you should see a list of dance styles that can be comfortably dance to that tempo sorted by closest tempo match. (*)

Blue indicates that the currently selected tempo falls exactly within style’s tempo range.  Green (F) indicates that the current tempo is faster than the dance style’s tempo range. Yellow (E) indicates that current tempo is slower than the dance style’s tempo range

The text next to the dance style name indicates the range in measures per minute and meter that is most commonly associated with the dance style when you have selected “Count Measures.” If you select “Count Beats,” the text changes to Beats Per Measure ranges.

Clicking on a line in the dance style list will take you to the dance info page for that style of dance.

You can adjust the tolerance for the tempo match by adjusting the match slider (H) to the less (left) or more (right) end of the control.

Why don’t I see any dances?

• Does the text in the tempo value controls (B & C) read 0.0? Then you haven’t given a tempo, you do this by counting out the tempo of song or typing in a tempo.
• Otherwise you might just have chosen a tempo that isn’t an exact match. Try sliding the match control  (H) at the bottom of the page further right (towards more) to see what dances might be just out of ‘exact’ range.