default tempo

• May 25, 2012 - 13:54

How can I find the default tempo for a score, i.e. the starting tempo before any tempo changes are made? I just added a "rit." and would next like to return to the original tempo, but I don't know what it is. Inserting tempo text "a tempo" does not automatically restore it. All I can do is play it and count, then guess. It seems to be near 120, but wouldn't it be nice if I knew exactly what it was? Yes, I could insert a deliberate tempo mark at the beginning, but I liked the original tempo and don't want to change it. Nothing comes up in the Handbook under "default" or "tempo" or "default tempo."


Comments

The fact that you don't know means no one reading your score would know either. So if you care about tempo, why not put in an explicit tempo marking at the beginning of the score, the way any published score would? Then the initial tempo would be whatever you say it is.

But for the record - not that one reading the score would be able to know this - in MuseScore's own playback, tempo defaults to 120 unless you have altered that via the Play panel.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks, that's a valid point, and I will adopt that practice. I realized in the mean time that I can read the initial tempo from the Play Panel. I like to keep the slider at 100% when entering a score, and reserve it for adjusting all of the tempi in the score proportionally, so that while practicing in "music minus one" mode, I can work my way up to the target tempo, or preferably a little faster for confidence in a performance.

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