Noob theory question

[Kentrel]

Why does so much music begin on the last beat of the first bar? When I compose I just start it on the first bar and never see any reason to fill it with rests?

 

Whats the reason for that? Is it to just give performers a chance to count in, or are there deeper theory reasons for it?

[gennation]

It's called a pickup beat. It anticipates beat 1. So it's not necessarily the first measure of the phrase, but a 'pick up' into the first phrase, or intro.

The measure before the beginning of the song is actually a 'pickup measure' since a 'pick up' itself can use as many beats as it needs to for the 'pick up'. IOW, a pickup could use beats 2, 3, or 4 of the pickup measure, it could even start the pick up on the 'and' of beat 1 in the pick up measure. On the other hand it could be a 16h note before beat 1 of the first measure.

Many charts don't show any rests at all for the pick up measure, the rests are implied, and all you see in the pick up measure are the notes associated witht he pick...nothing before.

The pick up measure just gets the tune rolling.

[Cazual]

As gennation said, it's a way of getting the tune rolling.

Breaking music into measures - with an idea of a 'Beat 1' that is stronger or more significant in some way is about establishing a rhythm pattern - in other words a scheme that provides emphasis in certain spots. But you don't always want to start on the strongest emphasis - so you can use a pickup measure to lead in.

It's a bit like the way we use any language. For instance:

The cow jumped over the moon

You wouldn't hit "The" with any force, you'd put the first emphasis on "cow". "The" is like a kind of pickup measure. But with something like "Cows give us milk " you'd go straight into putting the stress on the first word. So whether you use a pickup measure or not depends on how you want to use your musical accents.

That's how I think of it anyway. Others might disagree.

Chris

[jeremy_green]

Great responses.

 

Sometimes the melody you/they write carries across the bar line - that is it continues across into the next bar. So if you were to try to play this melody starting on beat one you would come in in the middle of the phrase.

 

So you need to compensate for that, here's a catchy tune to illustrate

 

1----2----3----4----|1-------2-------3-------4-------|1----2----3----4----|

----------------the- |Cow----jumped-over---the----|moon----------------|

 

So to start this tune you would need to begin on 4 to make it work.

 

Make sense?

[mc_carlini]

My jazz ensemble band director last year always would say "pickups to 28..." and it took awhile to get what he meant, although i was very unprepared for that class. I didn't take the time to properly learn the dominant chords until around February when the more advanced jazz guitarist chewed me out about it haha.

[gennation]

My jazz ensemble band director last year always would say "pickups to 28..." and it took awhile to get what he meant, although i was very unprepared for that class. I didn't take the time to properly learn the dominant chords until around February when the more advanced jazz guitarist chewed me out about it haha.

Yes, that's another good example. The director wants you do a pickup into the measure he wants to start from. This is great for help the band make the transition from where they are in a tune to the next section, without having to rehearse the whole section before it. They just 'pick up' tothe the section the director wants to work on.

I think one of the classic, must have, pickup bars is the sliding trombone playing beat 4 before The Stripper song start. It just wouldn't be the same without that "sliding trom-bone"