Quiz #14 - Upbeats, Anacrusis or Pickups

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Upbeats, Anacrusis or Pickups

Upbeats, anacrusis or pickups are the same thing: they all refer to the weak beat (or beats) that lead into a strong downbeat. Basically, they are used to describe a note or group of notes that occur before the first strong beat (downbeat) of a phrase or measure.

Here are some examples of upbeats, anacrusis or pickups:

The following instead, are not upbeats, but regular bars:

In other words, you can easily recognize an upbeat (anacrusis, or pickup) if the total value of the notes in the first bar is smaller than the full measure’s time signature.

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