Browser-based Beat Counter

You can use this calculator to quickly and accurately determine the tempo of a piece of music

To determine the tempo of a salsa track, tap any unassigned key on your keyboard once per bar as you listen to the music and you will see the tempo, in bars per minute, in the BPM box (10 to 20 taps should be enough). The box to the right of the BPM box gives a measure of the accuracy of your timekeeping, the closer to zero the better.

Why is it useful to know the tempo? It helps you to understand just why some tracks are easier to dance to than others and it will help you to choose music to recommend to your friends and play for dancers, based on your knowledge of their experience and skill. Its also interesting to see if, or by how much, a track speeds up by sampling the tempo near the beginning and near the end.

Here is my assessment of the character of various tempos of salsa-style music. You can let me know what you think on the message board.

Bars Per Minute

29 – 35	Cha-cha-chá tempo
36 – 39	This is dancers' no-man's-land, too fast for cha-cha-chá and too slow for salsa, so not a lot of salsa style music is made in this tempo range, but what there is is very useful for beginners, it's easy to step through routines in a controlled fashion
40 – 43	Slow salsa. A bit slow to really let go to but great for beginners to get to know the music. Experienced dancers should not find it a chore to dance with competent beginners at these tempos
44 – 49	Medium to medium-fast salsa. This is the sweet spot where experienced dancers can dance in a relaxed and expressive manner
50 – 55	Fast salsa. Whilst tempos in the low 50s are still quite dancable, at 55 bars per minute even the strongest dancers are being tested
56 – 60	Very fast salsa. This is where things start to get really frantic. Salsa danced at these speeds can look uncontrolled and unpleasant. You won't find much salsa at tempos of 60 bars per minute or faster