Tempo is personal, don’t you think? | sharing one of my aha moments

Choosing the tempo while playing a piece is quite an intricate process (or not). One of my biggest aha moments related to tempo are:
it’s personal, it’s interactive (between me and the piano, me and the piece, me and the listeners, me and the room, etc..)
music first, speed later
never sacrifice clarity for speed

[@margitostara]

Wat een prachtige toelichting het is echt zo. Je eigen tempo is the best ❤️🥰

[@BintangMelodySurabaya]

Yupe.. In jazz music, tempo is very personal depends on the player.. Because, playing a jazz music is not about reading scripts (like classics do) but it's an improvisation. So eye contact on each player is needed, they can play fast/semi fast/slow it depends on the player.

[@ruthdjatmiko]

And what do you think about classical music? Can the players also decide for themselves what ‘fast’ mean for them when allegro, presto vivace, or prestissimo is written?

[@BintangMelodySurabaya]

@@ruthdjatmiko Music is not about how fast / slow we can perform some songs, but depends about personal feeling that can not be "forced" to every player because it is unique. As long as it still sounds good, than it's fine to play with our interpretation feels about the song. Of course every player can decide how "fast" or "presto" or "andante" as long as it still in that area... Example Fast = M.M 120-140 then the player should play in that range of tempo.