Counting Music for Dancing: A Beginner's Guide to Beats & Bars

Learning to count music is a separate skill from learning steps, and it is the one that tells you when each step should happen. This guide covers the beat, the bar, the time signature and the phrase, then shows how the main ballroom and Latin dances are counted. Every tempo below names the book or rule it comes from.

The Beat and the Bar

The beat is the steady pulse you tap your foot to. Music groups beats into repeating units called bars (also called measures), and some beats in a bar are felt more strongly than others.

A time signature tells you how many beats are in each bar and which note value counts as one beat. "4/4" means four quarter-note beats per bar, counted "1, 2, 3, 4". "3/4" means three, counted "1, 2, 3". "2/4" means two.

The technique books give the Waltz as 3/4 (ISTD), the Cha Cha as 4/4 and the Samba as 2/4 (Walter Laird). Those three are the examples used below.

Beats per Minute and Bars per Minute

Dance tempos are published in two units, and mixing them up is the most common counting mistake.

• Beats per minute (BPM) counts every beat.
• Bars per minute (also written MPM, measures per minute) counts whole bars. Rule books for ballroom and Latin competitions usually publish this one.

To convert, multiply bars per minute by the beats in a bar. A Waltz at 30 bars per minute is 90 BPM, because each bar has three beats. A Cha Cha at 30 bars per minute is 120 BPM, because each bar has four.

Slows and Quicks

Smooth and Standard dances are often counted in "slows" and "quicks" instead of numbers. In 4/4 music a quick usually takes one beat and a slow takes two. Each figure has its own pattern of slows and quicks, set out in its technique chart, so learn the timing figure by figure. No single pattern belongs to a whole dance.

Phrasing

Bars group into phrases, the musical equivalent of a sentence. A lot of popular and ballroom music is arranged in four- and eight-bar groups. Find them by counting bars ("1, 2, 3, 4" for bar one, "2, 2, 3, 4" for bar two, and so on) and listening for where the melody starts again. Don't assume every song has them. Starting a figure at the top of a phrase helps choreography feel natural to the music, and when you dance socially, knowing where the phrase turns helps you choose when to change figures.

How Each Dance Is Counted

Waltz. 3/4, with the first beat accented. Each step takes one beat, and the ISTD Ballroom Technique counts bars as "1 2 3, 2 2 3, 3 2 3, 4 2 3" and so on. The WDSF competition tempo is 28-30 bars per minute (84-90 BPM).

Viennese Waltz. Much faster than the Waltz: 56-58 bars per minute (168-174 BPM) in the DVIDA chart, which gives these as the NDCA competition tempi. It is a separate dance from the slow Waltz, with its own tempo.

Foxtrot and Quickstep. Both are Standard dances. The DVIDA chart gives Foxtrot 28-30 bars per minute (112-120 BPM) and Quickstep 48-52 bars per minute (192-208 BPM). Quickstep therefore runs about 1.6 to 1.9 times as many bars per minute as Foxtrot, depending on where in each band the music sits, not "twice as fast".

Tango. 32 bars per minute (128 BPM) in the DVIDA chart.

Cha Cha. 4/4, with a musical accent on the first beat of each bar (Walter Laird, Technique of Latin Dancing, p.122). After a preparatory step on 1, the basic timing is "2, 3, 4 & 1": steps on 2 and 3, then a chassé on 4 & 1, where beat 4 is split into two halves (Laird, p.122 and the Time Step chart, p.127). Published tempos differ by source. Laird gives 28-30 bars per minute (112-120 BPM). The WDSF competition rules give 30-32 bars per minute (120-128 BPM). The DVIDA chart gives 32-34 bars per minute (128-136 BPM) for examinations and competitions.

Samba. 2/4, with the main percussive accent on the second beat (Laird, p.52). Bounce figures are counted "1 a 2", with beat values of 3/4, 1/4 and 1. Laird and the WDSF rules both give 50-52 bars per minute (100-104 BPM).

Rumba, Jive and Paso Doble. The DVIDA chart gives Rumba 26-28 bars per minute (104-112 BPM), Jive 40-46 bars per minute (160-184 BPM) and Paso Doble 60-62 bars per minute (120-124 BPM). Jive belongs to the Latin section. Quickstep belongs to Standard.

A competition tempo is a rule for what a competition floor must play. Social dance music often sits outside these bands, so use them as a reference, not as the only correct speed.

How to Practise

1. Pick a song with a clear beat and count "1, 2, 3, 4" (or "1, 2, 3" for a waltz) until you stop losing your place.

2. Count bars instead of beats: "1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4".

3. Count up to eight bars and listen for whether the melody starts again there.

4. Check your count against a tempo tool. The Song Analyzer estimates a song's BPM from the audio. Treat its reading as an estimate.

Sources

• World DanceSport Federation, Professional Division Competition Rules (2012), Rule 9 (Maximum Duration of Dances; Tempi), pp.6-7: Waltz 28-30, Cha-Cha-Cha 30-32, Samba 50-52 bars per minute.
• Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, The Ballroom Technique, 10th edition (1982; reprinted with amendment July 1994), Waltz, p.9: time signature, accent and bar counting.
• Walter Laird, Technique of Latin Dancing (new edition 1988, reprinted 1998), Cha Cha Cha pp.122 and 127: time signature, accent, timing, tempo; Samba p.52: time signature, accent, timing, tempo.
• DVIDA International Standard Bronze, "Musical Information Chart", Introduction volume p.27 (2013), stated as the official NDCA competition tempi: Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Tango.
• DVIDA International Latin Bronze, "Information Relating To [dance] / The Rhythm" (2013), stated as for examinations and competitions: Cha Cha, Rumba, Jive, Paso Doble.

Explore More at LODance

Our listening page has the tempo and timing tools. The glossary defines time signatures and dance terms, and the musicality quiz lets you test what you have learned.