How can people tell things like the time signature, key, and BPM of a song just by listening to it?

Question

How can people tell things like the time signature, key, and BPM of a song just by listening to it?

In: 1

Answer 1

The key takes a lot more experience and expertise, I can’t do that.

But time signature and tempo just comes down to counting. Complex time signatures are much harder to count out, but the vast majority of songs are either in 4/4, or 3/4.

So 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 or 1,2,3,1,2,3.

Most people with a little practice should be able to do that.