Metrics
Metrics is the study of verse metre. It describes how stressed and unstressed syllables alternate, and it can be carried over to music: a verse foot corresponds to a small group of one stressed and one or two unstressed beats, so a bar-length motif.
- Subject
- arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables or beats
- Smallest unit
- the verse foot
- Four basic feet
- iamb, trochee, dactyl, anapaest
- Related
- metre and bar
Syllables and beats
Metrics comes from the study of verse. A verse consists of syllables, and English and German verse arrange them by whether they are stressed or unstressed. A small, recurring group is called a verse foot. Music uses the same principle: in a bar too, stressed and unstressed beats alternate. That is why both disciplines share the term metrics, and why verse feet can be written directly in notes. The examples below use long notes for stressed and short ones for unstressed syllables.
Trochee: stressed – unstressed
A long, stressed note, then a short, unstressed one: quarter note and eighth note. The stress falls on the first beat of the bar. Example words: “music”, “singer”.
Iamb: unstressed – stressed
A short, unstressed note, then a long, stressed one. Written as bars the motif begins with an upbeat, the stressed note falls on the first beat of the following bar. The last bar is correspondingly shorter: upbeat and final bar together make one full bar. Example words: “begin”, “repeat”.
Dactyl: stressed – unstressed – unstressed
A stressed quarter note, two unstressed eighth notes. The motif fills exactly one 2/4 bar. Example word: “nightingale”.
Anapaest: unstressed – unstressed – stressed
Two unstressed eighth notes, then a stressed quarter note, with two eighth notes as an upbeat before the first bar. The final bar consists only of the stressed quarter note, which completes the upbeat into a full bar. Example words: “understand”, “interrupt”.
The four basic feet
Four verse feet are distinguished. Two of them have two syllables: the trochee with the first syllable stressed, the iamb with the second. Two have three syllables: the dactyl, in which the first is stressed, and the anapaest, in which the last is stressed. The table sums them up.
| Verse foot | Stress | In notation | Example word |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trochee | stressed – unstressed | quarter note + eighth note | music |
| Iamb | unstressed – stressed | eighth note + quarter note (with upbeat) | begin |
| Dactyl | stressed – unstressed – unstressed | quarter note + 2 eighth notes | nightingale |
| Anapaest | unstressed – unstressed – stressed | 2 eighth notes + quarter note (with upbeat) | understand |
Ancient prosody determines verse feet by the length of the syllables, short and long. English and German poetry arranges them by stress. The note values of the examples are therefore a musical translation, not a measured value: stressed syllables are set long because that sounds natural to the ear.
What this has to do with the bar
In music the stress of a bar falls on the first beat. Trochee and dactyl therefore fit into a bar without a detour: the stressed syllable falls on the one. Iamb and anapaest, by contrast, begin with an upbeat, see Upbeat. The second and fourth examples show that: their first bar is incomplete, and the last bar completes it.
Common mistakes
- Equating the number of syllables with stress: iamb and trochee both have two syllables, only the stress changes.
- Counting the upbeat as a bar of its own: it belongs together with the last bar, see the page on the upbeat.
- Equating metrics with rhythm: the metre is the scheme, the rhythm the concrete execution over it.
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Related terms
MetreBar / measureTime signatureUpbeatBeatBarlineNote valueAccentTripletFour-four time
Editor: Maik Krohm · reviewed on 3 October 2026
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