The speed of any song irrespective of the type of music is
usually called “tempo” meaning “time” in Italian. Generally, we measure tempo
by BPM meaning beats per minute. Without going into technical aspects of
musical theory, we can think of one beat as one step in salsa (except for the
4th and 8th beat where we usually pause, at least in the beginning stages). The
fastest salsa song that I know of is called “El Rey Del Timbal” by Tito Puente. Generally, Tito Puente's songs are
extremely fast but this one surpasses all others with a tempo of 356BPM (5.9
beats per second!). This means that if you want to dance to this song you have
to complete the full 8 count in 1.3 seconds.
By comparison, some of the slowest salsa songs out there are
below 120BPM which run at only a third of the above speed, meaning that you
will have to step 3 times as much to El Rey Del Timbal in the same time
compared to a song you may find in an absolute beginner’s class.
While it is possible to find such extremely slow or fast
salsa songs, they are nonetheless rare as most dancers will enjoy their dance
best when the tempo is somewhere in the range 160–220BPM. This is of course completely
subjective and various people have different preferences but most salsa songs
produced and played in clubs around the world will be in the above range.
This has practical reasons as people will simply get too
exhausted dancing at higher speeds for a long period of time and when songs are
too slow it is easy to get lost and lose the rhythm. I.e. In order for the
tempo to be suited well for dancing, the realisation of the rhythm it produces should not take much more than 2
seconds which is the duration of our conscious presence. If more time passes then most people without musical training or a good musical memory
will find it difficult to maintain the rhythm.
When reading sheet music, it is customary to describe the
tempo in Italian words as many of the most important composers of the 17th
century (which is when tempo indications became popular) were Italian. While these tempo
indications were historically applied to classical music predominantly, they
are still often used in musical analysis and for general musical notation. It
is important to note that some of the BPM definitions for tempo markings have
significant differences when comparing them across different time periods
and/or different countries. The below table is therefore only a rough guide
which quotes approximate BPM ranges based on the lowest and highest boundaries
these markings have experienced regionally over time.
Slower tempo markings than the ones shown in this
table exist but they are largely irrelevant in terms of salsa music as such slow
tempos would hardly ever be prevalent in salsa songs.
Tempo Markings
|
Meaning
|
BPM
|
Moderato
|
moderate
|
92–120
|
Adagio
|
at ease
|
56–124
|
Allegretto
|
moderately fast
|
104–120
|
Allegro moderato
|
close to allegro
|
116–120
|
Animato
|
animated, lively
|
116–126
|
Allegro
|
quick speed, fast
|
120–180
|
Andante
|
walking pace
|
76–152
|
Assai
|
quite fast
|
138–152
|
Vivace/Vivo
|
lively, fast, brisk
|
144–176
|
Vivacissimo
|
very fast and lively
|
172–176
|
Allegrissimo/Allegro vivace
|
very fast
|
172–176
|
Presto
|
extremely fast
|
160–208
|
Prestissimo
|
even faster than Presto
|
200+
|
It can therefore be seen that most salsa songs are in the
presto or prestissimo category which in itself is an indication that salsa is a
very fast dance form.
