Metronome markings are at the start of almost everey piece of music. They tell the player what tempo (speed) to play the song at. Next to the metronome mark can also be swing mark, which tells the player if the song has a swing rhythm. A swing rhythm is long short long short long.

As an alternative to metronome markings, you can use Tempo Markings. These are Italian words that mean the same as metronome markings, but they are less specific, and have a range of roughly 20 bpm. There is a chart on the right side comparing the tempo marking to the BPM.