What BPM is house?
House is 120-128 BPM, and 124 is a fair single number. The machine above is playing house at 124 BPM - press Space to hear it, then move the tempo and listen for where it stops sounding like house.
Why house lives at 120-128 BPM
House is 120-128 BPM, and 124 is the centre of gravity. The tempo comes from the disco records the first Chicago producers were extending and from the 909's default, and it has barely moved in forty years. Within the window the sub-styles sort themselves by a few beats: deep house and the original Chicago sound at 118-124, classic and vocal house at 122-126, tech house at 124-128, and beyond 128 you are into techno or the harder end of progressive.
The four-on-the-floor kick is what fixes the tempo so tightly. One kick on every beat at 124 BPM is a kick every 484 milliseconds, which is roughly the pace people walk and dance at, and it is the offbeat open hat between those kicks - every 242 milliseconds - that gives house its pump. Slow the same pattern to 110 and it is disco; speed it to 135 and it is techno with an open hat it does not need. Swing is zero or close to it; a swung house beat at 130 is UK garage.
124 BPM in milliseconds
For setting delay times, checking a sample's length, or programming by ear: at 124 BPM one bar of 4/4 is 1,935 ms and a 16th note is 121 ms.
| At 124 BPM | Length | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| One bar (4/4) | 1,935 ms | 0.52 Hz |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 484 ms | 2.07 Hz |
| Dotted 8th | 363 ms | 2.76 Hz |
| 8th note | 242 ms | 4.13 Hz |
| 8th-note triplet | 161 ms | 6.20 Hz |
| 16th note | 121 ms | 8.27 Hz |
| 32nd note | 60 ms | 16.53 Hz |
The genres either side
Tempo windows overlap, and what separates neighbours is usually swing and where the snare falls rather than the number itself. House with its nearest neighbours by tempo:
| Genre | BPM | Typical | Felt pulse | Swing | Family |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disco | 110-125 | 120 | as written | 8-14 | Funk and soul |
| Afro House | 118-126 | 122 | as written | 8-14 | Dance |
| House | 120-128 | 124 | as written | 0-8 | Dance |
| UK Garage | 130-135 | 133 | as written | 30-40 | Dance |
| Techno | 128-140 | 134 | as written | 0 | Dance |
Frequently asked
What BPM is deep house?
118-124, the slow end of house. The extra space is what makes room for the long chords and the shuffled percussion; most deep house sits right around 120-122.
What BPM is tech house?
124-128. Tech house borrows techno's tempo and drum sounds and keeps house's offbeat hat and groove. Push this page's groove to 127 and the kick tightens and the swing wants to go to zero.
Can I make house at a different tempo?
Yes, and the edges of the window are where the interesting records live. The point of the range is that inside it a listener hears house before they hear anything else; outside it, the same drum pattern reads as a neighbouring style. Drag the tempo on this page to hear the crossover happen.
Go deeper
Every genre's tempo
- What BPM is lo-fi hip hop?70-85 BPM
- What BPM is hip hop?80-100 BPM
- What BPM is boom bap?88-94 BPM
- What BPM is reggaeton?88-100 BPM
- What BPM is funk?95-115 BPM
- What BPM is afrobeats?100-115 BPM
- What BPM is amapiano?110-115 BPM
- What BPM is disco?110-125 BPM
- What BPM is afro house?118-126 BPM
- What BPM is UK garage?130-135 BPM
- What BPM is techno?128-140 BPM
- What BPM is the Amen break?136-137 BPM
- What BPM is trap?130-150 BPM · half-time
- What BPM is drill?138-145 BPM · half-time
- What BPM is phonk?130-160 BPM · half-time
- What BPM is dubstep?138-142 BPM · half-time
- What BPM is jungle?160-175 BPM
- What BPM is drum and bass?170-176 BPM
- What BPM is neurofunk?172-176 BPM
BAP Studio is inspired by classic 16-pad sampler and drum-machine workflows. It is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Akai Professional, Roland, or any other manufacturer.
Made by Max Berggren.