Pickup Measures


Pickup measures (also known as an Anacrusis or Upbeats) are used for phrases that start before the initial barline.


A pickup measure can be created, edited or removed by clicking on the menu "Document" and selecting "Pickup Measure...".



  • Duration

The duration of the pickup measure consists of the total duration of the selected note values. The information about which note values are selected is irrelevant, only the total duration will be used to create or edit the pickup measure.


  • Options

a)  "Insert new bar at the beginning" – If this option is not selected, the first bar of the music piece will be reduced to a pickup measure. Any content that exceeds the duration of the pickup measure will be removed. This option is only available while creating a pickup measure.

b) "Don’t change end measure" – If this option is not selected, the last bar of the music piece will be reduced to an incomplete end measure. And any content that exceeds the new duration of the end measure will be removed.


You can also use custom meters and hidden symbols to display pickup measures. This is necessary if you have a repeat sign and the measures must be incomplete.


Note: We recommend that you create a pickup measure before you really start working in a piece. This is because changing meters after there are lots of notes in the score can result in loss of any user formatting or other customizations you may have done.


To Create a Incomplete Measure


  • Add a new measure at the beginning of a piece
  • Add the same kind of meter that is in measure 1 to what is now measure 2.
  • Select the meter in the first measure and bring up the Properties Palette.
  • Change the meter type in the first measure to correspond to the number of beats you will need in your pickup measure. Select the Display as checkbox and enter the same meter that appears at measure.
  • Click the Apply button to apply the changes.
  • Select the meter at measure 2, then display the General tab in the Properties Palette and check the Hidden checkbox. Click the Apply button to hide the meter.