I’d bet that most songwriters have their ‘tempo comfort zones’.  Many of us, including me, tend to write most of our songs at a few similar tempos.

These tempos are like any habit – not always good for me, but what I’m used to…  Comfortable for me, if not the listener.

Why is this a problem?  In a nutshell, it’s another thing that can make my songs predictable.  When listening to a set of live music or a bunch of tracks in a row, if the tempos are similar, things can get boring really fast.  This is particularly true if the ‘tempo comfort zone’ is slow.  (Of course there are exceptions to this – people who can make a slow mood work over a period of time – but in most cases a long stretch of ballads or slow tunes can be pretty deadly.)

I know if I don’t pay attention to tempos, my writing suffers for it.

When I started working regularly with my band, I became aware that I had 3 or 4 tempo areas that I tended to write in.  And also that there was a pretty large zone that I tended to avoid – I didn’t have enough songs in roughly the 110-140 beats per minute area (pretty big area!).  This was not a choice… just a habit.

I really started to feel this when we’d play a whole set, and also when we started to record.  Any bunch of songs needs variety – not just in theme, melody, key, etc. – but in tempo too.

Of course song tempos can change after they’re written and that can help too.  But I couldn’t depend on solving the ‘problem’ that way.

So I started to pay closer attention to the tempos of what I was writing, as I was writing.  Most of the time I didn’t specifically pick a tempo in advance, but this approach did affect what ideas I chose to spend more time on.  Anything on the uptempo side got a little more attention in the development process – because I needed the song more.  I’m not saying I’d reject a song idea I thought was strong because I had other songs at that tempo, but if I got an idea for an uptempo song, it simply had more value to me than a medium or slow tempo song.

I think over time, largely as a result of making this conscious effort, my songs overall have become more well-rounded, tempo-wise.  I’ve got more variety in tempos, more to choose from.

I’ve been thinking about this again lately, though, because I just played someone a handful of new songs and song ideas and I noticed… there I go again… the tempos of most of them were pretty similar.

Paying attention to tempos is important.  Listeners appreciate it, even if they’re not consciously aware of it – they feel it.  When I’m listening, I know I’m very aware of hearing songs with similar tempos one after another.  It’s a drag!