Ideas for Teaching Tempo

I’ve noticed that students think that beat, rhythm and tempo are all the same thing. Although these concepts work harmoniously, terminology is important. It’s our responsibility as music teachers! I like to introduce the term “tempo” in kindergarten through identification of fast/slow or presto/largo. As students advance in grade level, I will introduce tempo names such as “andante” and “moderato”. Here are some of my favorite strategies for teaching tempo.

Teaching Tempo Through Musical Comparison

I find that listening and movement activities are some of the best ways to teach tempo in your music class. Here are some of my favorite recordings to use!

Presto

Summer from The Four Seasons – Antonio Vivaldi (Presto Movement)
Flight of the Bumblebee – Rimsky-Korsakov
Sabre Dance from Gayane – Aram Khachaturian

Allegro

Allegro Movement (Spring) from The Four Seasons – Antonio Vivaldi
Allegro in A Major – Shinichi Suzuki
Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 Allegro con brio – Ludwig van Beethoven

Moderato

Swan Lake Suite, Op. 20 Moderato – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
24 Preludes, Op. 28: No. 23 in F-Major, Moderato – Frédéric Chopin
Moderato for Cello and Piano, Op. 40 – Dmitri Shostakovich

Andante

Piano Concerto No. 21, Andante – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 II. Andante Con Moto – Ludwig van Beethoven
Andante con moto in E Major, Op. 19, No. 1 – Felix Mendelssohn

Adagio

Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 – Samuel Barber
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 “Moonlight Sonata” – Ludwig van Beethoven
Adagio in E Major, K. 261 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Largo

Symphony No. 9 “From The New World” – Antonín Dvořák (Movement II)
Largo from Xerxes Opera – G.F. Handel
Largo in E-Flat Major – Frédéric Chopin

Teaching Tempo Through Movement

This is super effective for teaching tempo (especially for your K-1 students!). One of the simplest things I do with my kindergarteners is having them move to variety of music containing different tempos. First, I’ll have the students will move like rabbits (fast) or turtles (slow). Sometimes I’ll ask the children to come up with their own animals too and they have some creative suggestions! For a playlist, you can use suggestions from my list above or your own preferences. I tend to mix different genres and types of world music into my playlists (my principal loved that!)

Something else my students ask for over and over again is something they refer to as The Soldier Song. This was my own invention where I took a song from one of my dance classes called Chou Chou Sheng by Corvus Corax. This song changes tempos a lot so I have the students do stretching and marching at the slower parts and jumping, running and spinning at the faster parts! It’s always a huge hit with kindergarten.

Here’s a demonstration of the movements I use (I pretty much improvise them). Sorry in advance for how exhausted I look!

The movements are pretty much improvised. Stretching and marching for the slower tempos, running, jumping and spinning for the faster tempos! Make sure you do the little hunting part because the kiddos LOVE it!

Teaching Tempo With Animals

Students can easily relate the speed of a cheetah to presto and the speed of a turtle to largo. I’ll also introduce other animals such as cows, pigs and bears to compare Moderato, Andante and Adagio. Here are the animals I use for teaching tempo…

ANIMAL	TEMPO
Turtle	Largo
Pig	Adagio
Cow	Andante
Grizzly Bear	Moderato
Giraffe	Allegro
Cheetah	Presto

I chose these specific animals because I noticed their rate of movement (MPH) could make a logical comparison to musical tempos (BPM). Usually I’ll show the images or have the students organize the animals by speed (fast-to-slow), then, I will have them find the matching tempo. You can check out the printable organizer packet I posted in my TPT shop if you are interested in doing a similar activity with your students!

Fun with Boom Cards!

This is one of several Boom Card resources I created to teach, reinforce and help students apply their understanding about tempo! Interested in getting these resources in a bundle? Click HERE!

Have you tried using Boom Cards with your music students? They are PERFECT for virtual or hybrid teaching! Check out some of these fun Boom Card resources I created for teaching tempo!