Pace Categories for Songs

If you use iTunes, you may notice that BPM is one of the fields you can edit in INFO mode. This field is blank by default, but after calculating a song’s Beats per Minute you can enter the number in yourself. I have done this for literally thousands of songs.

Beats Per Minutes measures a song’s pace. Slow songs have lower BPMs than fast ones, naturally. A song with a BPM of 90 is a pretty easy stroll. Songs with a BPM of 129 are right on the verge of breaking into a jog; songs with a BPM over 160 are a flat-out run. With experimenting you can find what paces you find comfortable.

Each song in every woglist comes with a BPM value. I use this to put each song in the list into one of seven categories:

Light Walk (80–99 BPM)

Light walks are enjoyable if you like to amble when you ramble. And they come in handy (footy?) when your legs ache and sweat is pouring off you after a run or a brisk jog. The funnest light walks are skippable Two-Timers.

Moderate Walk (100–114 BPM)

These make great songs to start and finish sets, since they are easy and relaxing, require little effort, and once in rhythm your body practically walks itself. Alas, it cannot last—that brisk jog is waiting for you down the line. You’d get bored with this pace anyway, if it went on too long.

Brisk Walk (115–129 BPM)

Unless I feel dead as dogfood, I always enjoy a brisk walk, particularly ones from 115–120 BPM. Over 120 BPM, they get very brisk, and sometimes it’s not clear whether you should do a very quick walk or a very slow jog (see Light Jog, below). Fact: nearly every Disco song ever recorded is a Brisk Walk. Feel better knowing that? I thought so.

Light Jog (130–139 BPM)

If you happen to be a card-carrying member of the Ninja Turtles, drink imported bottled water, or go to work wearing a helmet and pajamas, you may refer to this category as the Power Walk. That’s because, yes, you can walk at this pace, if you take a very determined stride and don’t mind looking like some doofus out of Monty Python. Alternately, you can do a shuffled-down jog step and pretend to be talking to your tax attorney.

Moderate Jog (140–149 BPM)

For a sustained, five- to seven-minute jog, this is a great pace. I believe that the human body is likely hard-wired to go on moderate jog cruise control, probably going back to the time when our ancestors lived on the Savannah and had to chase their prey for miles. And they did it without shoes, or even an iPod. Incredible, no?

Brisk Jog (150–159 BPM)

Like a moderate jog, only ratcheted up a notch, the closest thing to running without actually running is best left to songs under five minutes. Brisk jog numbers are almost always followed by a slower song to allow you to recuperate. Unless you’re a) crazy, or b) training for the Boston Marathon, in which case, why are you reading this?

Run (160–180 BPM)

Many songs at this pace are Two-Timers, so if you blow a gasket halfway through it you can walk it at half speed. I don’t recommend this pace for more than three minutes, especially songs closer to 180. Songs this fast should also be rhythmically consistent, since it’s hard to switch from a run to a waltz to a run to a shuffleboard tango and maintain sanity, let alone the beat.