What BPM Should You Start a New Passage At?

Start at the fastest tempo where you can play the passage perfectly three times in a row, with zero tension. Not your goal speed. Not "a bit challenging." The tempo where clean is easy — that's your real starting BPM.

Almost everyone starts too fast. It feels productive to practice near the target, but reps at a tempo you can't control just rehearse mistakes and build tension you'll fight for weeks.

How to find your starting BPM

• Pick a tempo that feels slow — slower than you think you need.
• Play the fragment three times. Every note clean, hands relaxed? Nudge up 5 BPM.
• Repeat until a rep gets tense or sloppy. Drop back one step.
• That last clean, relaxed tempo is your baseline. Write it down.

For a brand-new lick this might be 60–70 BPM even if your goal is 140. That gap is not a problem — it's information. It tells you exactly how much room you have to grow.

Why the starting number matters

Your starting BPM is the first point on your progress curve. Without it, "I'm getting faster" is a feeling. With it, going from 68 to 84 over two weeks is a fact you can see. A baseline turns vague practice into measurable training.

It also protects you from tension. When you always begin below your limit and climb in clean steps, relaxed technique becomes the default — and relaxed technique is what lets you play fast at all.

Save the baseline so it counts

A starting BPM you forget by next session is useless. The point is to compare against it. In Crank., add the fragment, set your target, and log that first clean tempo as your baseline — then watch the chart climb from it, session by session. Free on the App Store for iPhone.