What's a downbeat? What is an upbeat?
Upbeat
While cheerful can mean being happy and optimistic when talking about a person, this means an untrained beat that comes for an accentuated beat that usually comes as the last beat in a measure. The cheerful text essentially prepares listeners' ears for the first beat in the next measure or the next accentuated rhythm in the rhythm. The upbeat is therefore weaker than and predicts the downbeat; when counting “1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3,” the 3 should be the weakest count and can be considered a pick up note, a synonym for anacrusis. When explaining meter and rhythmic layouts or time markings, an instructor will often demonstrate the downbeat by leading the class through a specific time count and moving his or her hand up before the start of the next count.
