I have had to learn all about anacruses. An anacrusis is a short musical sequence — maybe even just a single note — which creates a rhythmic illusion in verse or music by pushing up the beat. It’s a Greek word, which literally means “pushing up.”
An example everyone knows is the “Oh” at the start of the first line of The Star Spangled Banner. An extra note is added. In poetry we refer to this as the first syllable of the first foot. In music, it’s the first beat of the first measure — which is why an anacrusis is also known as a “pickup beat.”
You may not think you’re familiar with this technique, but you are.
Loads of songs seem to come in on the off-beat. The best examples are ones where the song has an introduction without drums or percussion. The listener immediately starts searching for the hook, identifying rhythm, and trying to find where the “1” is. Where the sequence starts, ends and starts again. Sometimes you may assume the song is going to be a straight beat, and are a little surprised if the drummer comes in at double time, or half-time. Maybe you’re a drummer, and what you’re hearing the drummer do is not what you would have instinctively done yourself.
But the coolest intros are the ones where they fooled you because of an anacrusis — a purposely crafted note or sequence of notes, preceding the first downbeat in a bar. It disguises the downbeat, so it is not emphasized or distinguishable. The result is, when the beat drops — it’s surprising. It’s not the way you felt the song was going to go. It’s the same sequence of notes or chords, but suddenly sounds really different somehow.
Sometimes an anacrusis creates what’s known as a metric modulation. The time signature changes. This can also be achieved by leaving a beat out, or including an unaccented note. You end up with a song like Sex On Fire by Kings Of Leon, which starts with a guitar intro that is “4 and 1” which means the timing is “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and…” The problem is, the intro is not quite played on those beats. The guitar plays the bits in bold: “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and…”
After repeating the line four times, there is a metric modulation and It takes a second or two for your ears to accept the new downbeat as the “1”. Check it out above.
These deceptive intros are super cool — really popular in hip-hop, but every genre has examples. Not all of them involve an anacrusis, sometimes it’s just a clever time signature or tempo change — subtle enough to work but dramatic enough to be a very stirring launch for the song.
Anyway, I obsess over such things. Here’s a playlist of songs with intros that throw you a little when the beat drops. See if you can figure out which ones are courtesy of an anacrusis.
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
