How do you go about setting the correct tempo for a song?

Define "correct tempo"?

When you write the song, you're going to be writing it/playing for a comfortable pace or tempo.... that's the tempo you chose to perform it at, presumably because that's what your mind's eye/ear dictated as you were creating it!

If you think of writing a ballad, it isn't likely that you'll conceptualize the song in your head at a fast tempo first, then bring it down... you're more likely to dream it up as a slow song.

Mind you after you've written it, you may decide that it really works better as an uptempo song, and so you re-write it for that perspective.

So to answer your question, "correct tempo" for a song is whatever musical pace you feel the song works best at to convey your intended emotional impact.
_________________
Bruce Valeriani - Mix Engineer

I know how important tempo is for a song....there have been times i have done a song and went back and listened too it a couple days later and it just sounded like it was dragging so i then sped it up ...but while i was working on it originally the tempo sounded fine...there have also been times where I have heard songs done by other producers that were good songs..but people werent really feeling them like they could have been because the tempo was not "comfortable" .Also, famous producer/composers like Quincy Jones and Norman Whitfeild stressed the importance of tempo for a song. I was just wondering if there was a particular way to determine what the tempo of a song should be.

BlueBearSound wrote:

"Correct tempo" for a song is whatever musical pace you feel the song works best at to convey your intended emotional impact.

That's pretty much the ONLY criteria for determining tempo that I know of....
_________________
Bruce Valeriani - Mix Engineer

Blue Bear is correct. The only way to pick a tempo is just to play what feels right.

There are 2 reasons a practiced song feels like it is dragging..

1. USUALLY because when you practice it you speed up throughout the song, so when actually play a specific tempo you are forced to follow, it feels wrong.

2. The song is boring, so speeding it up adds some feel, or you are making it too mechanical.

Before you even go to record, practice with a metronome, so you know what tempo to set at and feels right when you go to the studio.