120 BPM metronome
At 120 BPM, one beat lasts 500 ms (0.5 s). Exactly two beats a second, an easy tempo to calculate with.
- One beat
- 500 ms
- Per second
- 2 beats
- One bar of 4/4
- 2 s
- Marking (rough)
- Allegretto
What 120 BPM is like
It sounds exactly twice a second, and a bar of 4/4 lasts exactly two seconds. Some armed forces set their marching pace at 120 steps a minute (it varies by country and unit). In music software, 120 is often the starting tempo of a new project.
Good for
- Keeping a clear, marching step
- Working out how long a piece runs from its bar count
- Setting the length of a delay effect
These are rough guides. The right speed depends on the piece, the instrument and the player. Tempo markings cover different BPM ranges in different sources, and some give another marking for the same BPM. The marking here follows the divisions on tempofy's ruler.
Note lengths at 120 BPM
Lengths with the quarter note as one beat. ms means milliseconds: 1,000 ms is one second.
| Note | Beats | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 2,000 ms |
| Dotted half note | 3 | 1,500 ms |
| Half note | 2 | 1,000 ms |
| Dotted quarter note | 1.5 | 750 ms |
| Quarter note | 1 | 500 ms |
| Dotted eighth note | 0.75 | 375 ms |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 250 ms |
| One note of a triplet | 1/3 | 166.7 ms |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 125 ms |
Some scores count the BPM on a half note or a dotted quarter note. The lengths change then.
Bar lengths at 120 BPM
At the same BPM, the length of a bar depends on the time signature.
| Meter | 1 bar | 8 bars | Bars a minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2/4 | 1 s | 8 s | 60 |
| 3/4 | 1.5 s | 12 s | 40 |
| 4/4 | 2 s | 16 s | 30 |