Another question about tempo ...

[slane]

OK ...I've been playing abunch of little pieces for  few months and it occured to me that I could probably do my 3rd grade exam. So I measured the tempo of all the pieces I play and some of them are faster than the marked speed, some slower, and the slower ones are all within 10% of the marked speed. That's OK isn't it? 110BPM vs 120 etc.?

Now I just have to work on my nerves.

[faulty_damper]

Tempo markings are mostly only guidelines.  The purpose is to help the player interpret the music.  If you think that a tempo better serves the expression of the music, then by all means use that tempo instead of slaving away with the metronome.

[bleicher]

Agree with faulty_damper. I used to work in an exams board as the person on the end of the phone when people asked questions like this, and that's a model answer.

[slane]

Well I'm glad I didn't ring up the exam board and ask Actually I wouldn't have done that.
Its not so much that the tempo better expresses the music as my fingers get in a knot if I go any faster ... although there is one andante piece I like to play slower than that and pull lots of barenboim-esque faces. Do you lose marks for behaving like Glenn Gould?