How to end songs

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There are a few structural forms of music that are heavily utilized in popular music. One is the strophic form that relies on a repeated section. There is also the twelve bar blues, the thirty-two bar structure and the verse-chorus structure. The beginning and ending are not really thought of as an integral element of a song in today’s music. The most important parts are the verse and the chorus – you can leave off the intro or the coda if you want to. The bridge carries a little more weight even though it is mostly only used once.

Why are we talking about song structure? Because one of the nastiest problems – or interesting challenges – of playing songs is how to end them. So I thought I’d start with an overview of the whole way a song is put together. Now that’s over with, here are some thoughts on how to end songs:

There are standard endings for songs. One is the fadeout where the band simply experiences a gradual lowering of volume. If you don’t want to fade out the volume, you can gradually decrease the number of instruments playing until you are left with the singer. Conversely, you can begin the coda with a few instruments and add more with a corresponding growth in volume. You will find a discussion on how to end a song at ultimate-guitar.com

To some artists, the beginning and the end are the most important sections of a song. The audience stops listening all the members of the band are not agreed on what they are supposed to be playing. There are also lazy endings where the drummer goes postal while the rest of the band holds the final note, or if it’s not the drummer it’s the lead guitar. If the band plays those all night, the audience doesn’t last the distance.

To avoid lazy, sloppy endings, the band needs to rehearse how the songs are going to begin and end. And you, as a guitar player should be gathering a collection of intros and codas for future use.

For jazz players it is important to give the audience the courtesy of planning the structure of the song instead of throwing it around amongst the band for a while before coming to a grinding halt. Here is a lesson on endings for jazz guitar players:

http://www.guitarmadesimple.com/lessons/song_endings.html

. . . and finally . . . 10 Jazz Guitar Endings

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