Eric Clapton · Complete Unplugged

Tears in Heaven

Tears in Heaven is in A major at 155.9 beats per minute.

Tempo

156 BPM · Allegromedian of 178 analyses · 153.5–156.1 across the middle eight tenths

Key: A major3 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 100%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 178people who ran the extractor
One beat: 384.9milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 3.52dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.629Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.074Essentia's danceability, 0–3

Source: AcousticBrainz, dump of 2022-06-23 (CC0) · MusicBrainz core data, 2026-09-17 (CC0) · how each number is measured. Measured up to 23.06.2022 — AcousticBrainz stopped collecting in 2022, so nothing released after that date is here.

What the numbers say

178 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 100% — put it in A major, a key signature of 3 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 178 readings; 94% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 153.5 to 156.1 BPM.

At 155.9 BPM one beat lasts 384.9 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 96.2 ms and a dotted eighth 288.6 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 78 BPM, counted twice as fast 311.8. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 434.2 Hz, which is 23 cents below concert A at 440 Hz — the sort of drift a tape machine or a slightly different mastering leaves behind. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.

The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 3.52 dB: that is how far the level wanders from its own average, so a small number means a loud, flat master and a large one means a recording that still breathes. Its average loudness is 0.629 on Essentia's 0-to-1 scale, which is not decibels and is not comparable to a streaming service's number.

10 other recordings here are in A major; the ones listed below are the closest in tempo.

Beats per bar are not in this dataset. AcousticBrainz's analysis reports a tempo, a key and a loudness, and no time signature at all, so this page does not print one — a 4/4 here would be a guess dressed as a measurement.

Keys that fit with A major

Each of these differs from A major by at most one accidental, or shares its tonic. That is the whole of what a mixing wheel encodes; here the relations are named instead of numbered.

Delay times at 156 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	1539.4	0.65
Half note	2	769.7	1.3
Dotted quarter	1.5	577.3	1.73
Quarter note (one beat)	1	384.9	2.6
Quarter triplet	0.667	256.6	3.9
Dotted eighth	0.75	288.6	3.46
Eighth note	0.5	192.4	5.2
Eighth triplet	0.333	128.3	7.8
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	144.3	6.93
Sixteenth note	0.25	96.2	10.39
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	64.1	15.59
Thirty-second note	0.125	48.1	20.79

Half time 78 BPM · double time 311.8 BPM. Every row is one beat (384.9 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in A major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 156 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in A major All songs at 156 BPM A major at 150–159 BPM Eric Clapton

MusicBrainz collapses 83 recording ids into this one. Recording id bc10b379-413a-49d9-b6a5-36771762c4d3.