Tempo

Tempo describes the speed of music - from adagio to allegro and plenty in-between - these are mostly Italian terms:

• Grave - very slow
• Largo - broadly (slowly)
• Lento - slowly
• Adagio - slowly with great expression
• Andante - walking pace
• Moderato - moderately
• Allegretto - fairly fast
• Allegro - fast, quick
• Vivace - lively and fast
• Presto - very very fast

There's also terms for speed changes: accelerando / accel. = speed up & ritardando / rit. = slow down.

Also see time signatures and musical directions.

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Read more: Wikipedia