Sing the Spots - Video training in Sight-Singing for the non-musician

Home
Courses
Memberships
My Account
Links
Help

Skill: Pick-Up Notes

We've talked about how the time signature tells you how many beats are in a measure. But sometimes a song starts with only part of a measure. You can tell that by seeing if there are fewer beats before the first bar line than the time signature indicates. The notes in this partial measure are sometimes referred to as "pick-up notes", and they are not emphasized. The first strong beat is the downbeat, the first note of the first full measure. We're used to this in poetry, where lines sometimes start with one or more weak beats: There are strange things done in the midnight sun...; The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day...; This is known as "anacrusis", and it's the same idea as pick-up notes in a song. Some poems, like songs, start on the downbeat: By the shores of Gitchee-Gumee...; This is the forest primeval... All the songs we've seen so far start on the downbeat. But if there's a partial measure, you have to figure out which beat corresponds to the notes. If it's in 4/4 and there's only one quarter note, then it represents beat 4 in the partial measure. But it could start on beat 2 or 3, or even between beats with shorter notes. You have to determine that before you start singing the song.

Comment or Like us on Facebook

An H. F. Buerer website