Tempo marking
LargoThe traditional Italian marking for 40–60 BPM: broad and slow.Pulse · tempo · time
40 BPM Metronome
This page opens a working metronome at 40 BPM. Each click arrives every 1500 milliseconds (1.5 seconds), which the Italian tempo scale calls Largo. Press start, then change the tempo or the time signature whenever you want — nothing here is locked.
Beats per minute
BPM
1234
Ready at 40 BPM in 4/4.
Tempo facts
How fast is 40 BPM?
A metronome set to 40 BPM plays 40 evenly spaced clicks every minute. Here is what that works out to.
Beat interval
1500 ms60000 ÷ 40 = 1500 milliseconds between clicks, or 1.5 seconds.Bar length
6 sFour beats of 4/4 at 40 BPM fill 6 seconds.Half and double time
20 / 80One beat per two clicks gives 20 BPM; splitting each beat in two gives 80 BPM.How 40 BPM feels
At 40 BPM the clicks are so far apart that they stop feeling like a pulse and start feeling like landmarks. A second and a half is long enough to hear the whole shape of a note before the next click arrives.
What to practise at 40 BPM
Use 40 for the slowest stage of learning a passage: sorting out fingering, checking intonation on long tones, or unpicking a rhythm one note at a time. Because the gaps are so wide you have to keep your own pulse running between clicks, and that is the real skill this tempo trains.
Where you meet 40 BPM
Very little music is performed at 40. It sits at the bottom of the Largo range and is the slowest mark most mechanical metronomes offer, which is how 40 became the conventional floor — including on this tool.
Half time and double time
40 BPM in half time is 20 BPM: the same music, counted with one beat for every two clicks. Double time is 80 BPM, where every beat splits into two even eighth notes. Half time falls below this metronome's 30 BPM floor, so count one beat for every two clicks rather than changing the setting.
This relationship is the reason a written tempo and a felt tempo often disagree. Drummers and producers move between the two constantly. Half time is below the range this metronome offers, so to work at it here, leave the click at 40 BPM and count one beat for every two clicks instead of changing the setting.