10. Tempo and time

▶ Open in Aratu to hear and change the examples

tempo: 96
at bar 3: rit to 70 over 2 bars
at bar 5: a tempo
hh = c c c c

When a change happens. A change with at bar N: happens at that bar. A change written on its own happens where the piece starts or, while you play, at the next bar line after you write it.

During a ritardando or accelerando the tempo changes evenly, beat by beat, as a score reads, and every note lands at its exact time.

Fermata. ^ on a note holds it: g4^ lasts twice its value, and every part waits for it. With a number it lasts that many times: g4^3 lasts three times as long.

Pickup. pickup: beat 4 starts the piece on the fourth beat of an incomplete first bar. The pickup is bar 0, so bar 1 is the first full bar, as musicians number them. A line whose first bar is as long as the pickup starts in it; the others start at bar 1.