Incomplete Measure - Why Do we Have Them? Start adding the counts there and, when they run out of notes to write counts under, they get to head back to the beginning to finish the counting. The final measure will start with Count #1. I tell my Students that if they start counting with Count #1, but they run out of notes to write counts under, then it is an Anacrusis and they need to go to the end. On of the Ultimate Music Theory Basic Rudiments Workbook, there is an excellent exercise on how to add the counts when a melody does not start with a complete measure (when it does not start on count #1). So, start adding the counts there and, when you run out of beats, head back to the beginning and finish adding the counts. The beginning of the final measure will be Count #1. So, how is the first count of an Incomplete Measure? To figure this out, you must go to the end, to the Last Measure! It is not necessarily the first count of the melody. When a melody starts with an Incomplete Measure, it does NOT start with Count #1!Ĭount #1 is the first count of the first Complete Measure. Incomplete Measure - How Do we Count Them?
