Pickup measures

To create a pickup measure at the beginning of a piece

The following method, in effect, places an “invisible rest” at the beginning of the first measure of your piece. Follow these steps to convert the first measure into a pickup measure. If you wish to add a pickup measure before the first measure of your piece, first insert a measure with the Measure tool. See Measure menu. Any notes you enter will be pushed to the right of this invisible rest.

• From the Document menu, choose Pickup Measure. The Pickup Measure dialog box appears.
• Click the rhythmic value corresponding to the sum of the pickup note or notes.
• Click OK (or press return), and enter the pickup notes. PrintMusic will still play back the entire measure—including the invisible rest before the pickup measure. If you need to respace the pickup notes, see “To respace pickup notes,” below.

To respace pickup notes

When you originally create a pickup measure, PrintMusic positions the pickup notes according to their placement as dictated by the meter.

• Click the Selection tool  , and select the pickup measure. If you have multiple staves, select the one with the most notes.
• From the Utilities menu, choose Apply Music Spacing. PrintMusic respaces the measure.
• From the Utilities menu, choose Update Layout.

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