Music notation glossary · Time signatures
Upbeat
the incomplete first bar
In the score
What it means
A piece begins before beat one. The missing value appears at the end: an upbeat of one quarter means the last bar is one quarter short. Together they make one full bar.
Pickup measure
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.
Related pages
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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.