The pickup measure
Five cases to hear and see: the same melody once from the downbeat, once with a pickup. The notes stay, the barlines move.
Many songs do not begin on beat one but one or two notes earlier. That incomplete first measure is the pickup, also called the anacrusis or upbeat. It is not a mistake in the engraving but a statement about stress: the first note is unaccented, the next one lands on beat one.
On this page every case stands twice side by side, and both pictures carry the same sequence of notes — same pitches, same entries, same durations. That is measured from the sound. What moves are the barlines in the engraved image, and with them a different note lands on beat one.
Two things belong to it inseparably: the pickup does not count as measure one — the first full measure does —, and the final measure is shortened by exactly the pickup. A piece in four-four that starts with one quarter ends with three.
One quarter before beat one
On the left the melody starts on beat one, on the right a quarter earlier. The notes are the same, but on the right the first barline already stands behind the first note. So the high C lands on beat one instead of the G, and the melody sounds as though it takes a breath before it begins. The last measure on the right is shorter by exactly that quarter.
Several notes in the pickup
A pickup need not be a single note. Here two eighths stand before the first barline — together as long as one quarter. They stay beamed, because they lie within one beat. In the left-hand image the same two eighths sit at the start of the measure, and there the first of them carries the stress; on the right the third note does.
Half a measure as a pickup
A pickup may run to half a measure and beyond — only a whole measure it must not be, or it would not be a pickup. Here two quarters stand in front. The final measure on the right accordingly holds only two quarters, and the two together make one full measure again.
Pickup in three-four time
In three-four nothing about the rule changes, only the numbers inside it. A quarter of pickup means the first full measure begins after one note, and the final measure still holds two quarters. In triple time the difference is especially audible, because beat one weighs more there than in quadruple time.
Pickup in six-eight time
In six-eight the eighths are beamed into groups of three, and it is exactly those groups that travel along. On the left stand four clean groups of three. On the right the pickup note stands alone with a flag, then the groups of three follow displaced, and a group of two is left at the end. The beams show where the measure begins before you go looking for the barline.
Pickup and final measure belong together
A pickup is always shorter than a full measure — otherwise it would not be one. How much shorter is nowhere written down: a quarter, two eighths, half a measure, all of it occurs. You read it off the position of the first barline.
At the end the remainder comes back. If a piece in four-four starts with one quarter, the last measure holds only three — four again when taken together. Anyone repeating the piece counts straight across the final measure into the pickup, and the count works out. That is what the shortening is for; it is not carelessness on the engraver’s part.
One thing a pickup does not say: how fast or how loud to play. It only shifts where beat one falls.
What stands next to it
What a measure is in the first place and which beats carry the stress: Time signatures. How to read an engraved page from the start: How to read sheet music.
Music symbols · Time signatures · Music notation glossary
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See AnotonaEvery note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.