Upbeat
The upbeat is an incomplete bar at the beginning of a piece. It begins before the first stressed beat (the downbeat) and fills only the last beats of a bar. The missing beats are usually found in the last bar of the piece, and the two together make a full bar.
- Appearance
- shorter first bar, often only one or two notes
- Completion
- last bar is shortened as well
- Counting
- upbeat = bar 0, first full bar = bar 1
- Effect
- momentum forward onto the first stressed beat
Before the one
On the page Rhythm it says: you find the upbeat at the beginning of many songs, an incomplete bar that begins before the first stressed one. The missing beats are usually completed at the end of the piece. The page Building block: rhythm names the upbeat as one of three means that give life to a rhythm: a note or several that sound before the first full bar. Many songs gain forward momentum from it.
| Piece | Time | First bar | Last bar | Upbeat? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| “Kommt ein Vogel geflogen” | 3/4 | two eighth notes = 1 beat | quarter note and rest = 2 beats | yes |
| “Alle meine Entchen” | 4/4 | four eighth notes and two quarter notes = 4 beats | four eighth notes and half note = 4 beats | no |
| “Alle Vögel sind schon da” | 4/4 | dotted quarter note, eighth note, two quarter notes = 4 beats | half note, quarter note, rest = 4 beats | no |
How to recognise it
The page German Song Sheets describes how to recognise it: on the sheet you see the upbeat from the incomplete first bar, and from the fact that the last bar is incomplete too, because the two together make a full one. This mistake happens often: if you sing the upbeat as a full beat 1, you are a beat off for the whole song, and the accompaniment then fits nowhere.
The table shows it with three sheets from the archive. “Kommt ein Vogel geflogen” has an upbeat: first bar one beat, last bar two beats, together three, as much as a full 3/4 bar. “Alle meine Entchen” and “Alle Vögel sind schon da”, on the other hand, have a complete first bar in the archive, they begin on beat 1. A song therefore does not need an upbeat, even though many have one.
Bar 0
When discussing passages in the sheet you count the upbeat as bar 0 and the first full bar as bar 1. This way of counting also applies in the bar references of this glossary. Other editions may count differently. With a bar reference in another edition, therefore, check how the count runs.
Upbeat in the score
Songs
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Kommt ein Vogel geflogen Children's song, folk tune · voice with chords · 1 page
In 3/4 the song begins with an incomplete bar of two eighth notes, A and B♭. The last bar contains only an F and a rest. Together the two bars make three beats.
Piano
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Für Elise Ludwig van Beethoven, WoO 59 · piano · 3 pages
The piece begins in 3/8 with an upbeat of two sixteenth notes, E and D♯. A full bar would have six sixteenth notes. The first full bar, bar 1, then brings E–D♯–E–B–D–C.
In “Für Elise” the upbeat falls on two sixteenth notes. It gives the famous opening its light tap before bar 1 sets the melody going with E–D♯–E–B–D–C.
Common mistakes
- Singing the upbeat as the first beat: That shifts the whole song by a beat.
- Taking the final bar for a mistake: If the last bar is shortened, it completes the upbeat.
- Taking every song for an upbeat song: Always check the first bar: if it is full, the song begins on the one.
Continue on Maikstrings
Related terms
Bar / measureBarlineTime signatureFour-four timeSyncopationBeat
Editor: Maik Krohm · reviewed on 3 October 2026
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