Downbeat
The first beat of a bar, where the conductor's baton falls and the strongest metrical accent usually sits.
The downbeat is the reference point everything else is measured against, and phrases frequently begin just before it so that they land on it with weight. Guitarists use it to place chord changes and to know where a section starts, and a riff written across the downbeat rather than starting on it creates the pushing, syncopated feel common in funk. Counting a bar correctly means knowing where the downbeat is without having to think about it.
Example: A chord change that arrives on the first beat of the bar lands on the downbeat.
See also
Related
- PageUpbeat
- PageBackbeat
- PageTime signature
- PageAccent
- PageAction height
- PageAlternate picking
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley