Pick-up Notes

What is a pick-up note?

A pick-up note starts a piece before the downbeat of the first full measure of music. These notes before the first downbeat shift the stress from the first sound you hear to the downbeat. Having a beat before the first measure of music is known as a pick-up beat or anacrusis.

In Western notation, the value of the pick up note is subtracted from the last measure of the song. You combine the beats in the pick up measure with the beats missing from the last measure, and together, the first and last measures add up to one full measure.

Pickup notes are counted with this combination in mind. In the example below, you would count the rhythm as “four, one, two, three, four.” We have more tips about counting in our article on How To Count Rhythms in Music | Tips for Beginners. 

Why do pick-up notes exist?

Pick-up notes exist to move the stress to the first stressed word or note of the song. This makes sure the right note, or syllable, is accented. For example, in “Happy Birthday to You”, happy is on the pickup beat. The accented downbeat of the song is on “Birth” of “birthday.” When we speak, we emphasize “Birth” of birthday, saying happy BIRTHday, rather than HAPPY birthday. 

What does a pick-up note look like?

A pick-up note leads into the first measure of a piece of music. It can be a note or a series of notes before the first full measure of the piece. This pick-up measure is usually  complimentary to the ending measure of the piece, which together add to a complete measure. 

What is Anacrusis?

Anacrusis describes an unstressed note leading into the first strong beat of a piece in music. It happens across many musical and spoken word traditions. It serves as a brief unaccented “intro” in both poetry and music that shifts the stress of a line. It is a beat or beats that precede the first measure of music, or a word preceding the first stressed syllable of a line of poetry. 

What is the effect of Anacrusis?

Anacrusis moves the stress from the first note of the piece to the first strong beat of the measure. It’s the same effect as a pick up note. The term is also used in poetry, music, and even academic writing to describe something that serves as an introduction with the main focus on what comes after it.

In music, pickup notes come before the first stressed beat of a song. In poetry, anacrusis describes a word preceding the first stressed word of a line. Another musical notation that shifts the stress patterns are Dotted Notes & Rhythms | Quarter, Half, Eighth, Whole & More.

Where does the word Anacrusis come from?

The word anacrusis comes from the Ancient Greek word for “striking up.” This describes the way the opening beat of an anacrusis shifts the stress or focus from the very first sound you hear to the first stressed beat. Many of the music terms we use today come from foreign languages including Italian, German, and even Ancient Greek. You can learn more music terms in our comprehensive Music Terms List.

Hello and welcome back, I'm Joseph
Hoffman,
and in this lesson we're going to
practice counting rhythms with pick up notes.
Remember, music is made up of
strong and weak beats organized into measures.
The first beat in every measure
is a strong beat, and that first beat is called a downbeat.
The word downbeat
comes from the tradition of conducting.
A conductor is someone who stands in front
of a group of musicians, like an orchestra,
and waves her or his hands to
show the beat to keep everyone playing together,
and also to show the dynamics. Like if they want to play really loud they move their hands wide.
To play really softly they'll move their hands small.
Back in the Baroque period, which
was the 1600s and early 1700s, conductors would sometimes help
by hitting a staff on the floor on each downbeat.
Over the years though, conductors got a little
more subtle and eventually started using a baton
like this to show the beat using
patterns drawn in the air like this:
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Notice that beat 1 is always a down motion, which is how it got the name downbeat.
Let's check out some rhythms to practice.
Here's a simple rhythm using a 4/4 time signature.
Let's find the downbeats.
We've got a downbeat here on beat
1. 1 2 3 4, and then another downbeat
here at the start of this next
measure. 1 2 3 4
Those down beats are the strong beats,
but sometimes a composer may not want to start a piece on a strong beat.
So what do we do then?
Well, the composer can add an extra weak beat at the beginning called a pick up beat.
This quarter no ...