Tempo marking
PrestissimoThe traditional Italian marking for 200 BPM and above: as fast as it can be played.Pulse · tempo · time
200 BPM Metronome
This page opens a working metronome at 200 BPM. Each click arrives every 300 milliseconds (0.3 seconds), which the Italian tempo scale calls Prestissimo. Press start, then change the tempo or the time signature whenever you want — nothing here is locked.
Beats per minute
BPM
1234
Ready at 200 BPM in 4/4.
Tempo facts
How fast is 200 BPM?
A metronome set to 200 BPM plays 200 evenly spaced clicks every minute. Here is what that works out to.
Beat interval
300 ms60000 ÷ 200 = 300 milliseconds between clicks, or 0.3 seconds.Bar length
1.2 sFour beats of 4/4 at 200 BPM fill 1.2 seconds.Half and double time
100 / 400One beat per two clicks gives 100 BPM; splitting each beat in two gives 400 BPM.How 200 BPM feels
200 BPM means a beat every 300 milliseconds, more than three a second. It sits right on the traditional boundary between Presto and Prestissimo, and the click reads as a continuous pattern rather than separate events.
What to practise at 200 BPM
Few passages need to be practised at 200 directly. Its real use is as a subdivision reference: set 200 and play one note every second click to hold a rock-solid 100 BPM with the eighth notes already built in.
Where you meet 200 BPM
200 BPM turns up in fast bebop heads, thrash metal and traditional fiddle sets. Mechanical metronomes usually stop between 200 and 208, which is where the traditional upper mark comes from.
Half time and double time
200 BPM in half time is 100 BPM: the same music, counted with one beat for every two clicks. Double time is 400 BPM, where every beat splits into two even eighth notes. Double time is past the 300 BPM ceiling here, so subdivide by ear instead: two even notes on every click.
This relationship is the reason a written tempo and a felt tempo often disagree. Drummers and producers move between the two constantly, and it is also the safest way to learn something fast: build it at 100 BPM, keep the same subdivisions, then double the number once the movement is automatic.