Wrapping Things Up: How To End A Song
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- čas přidán 18. 08. 2016
- Starting a song is easy: Finishing one is a lot harder. You have to bring the whole thing together, sum up all your ideas, and leave the listener with something to remember. There's a lot of parts to consider, and we certainly can't cover all of them, but here's some common approaches to the most important elements of an ending, so your music can go out with a bang! Or, if you prefer, a whimper. Up to you.
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The Vegas ending can have some meaning in a song. Like in 21st Century Schizoid Man, the final part of the riff begins to play slowly, but then it gradually accelerates into an atonal frenzy of noise until it trails off... and comes back again even more suddenly before ending with a button. Considering that this song is about the Vietnam War, and how it was written in 1969, that ending makes perfect sense in showing the chaos of the war.
I didn't know that, thanks for sharing!
Content of these videos is priceless for beginner composers like me. Thanks man.
"Button" ... I've been seeking the word for that thing for years.
cogwheel42 And I've been searching the word for what turned out to be the Vegas ending for years as well. Thanks a lot, 12tone!!
Somewhere on youtube there is a performance of Sultans of Swing by solo Mark Knopfler (formerly of Dire Straits) where he gets through the first few bars of the famous guitar solo then, mid way through, the whole band abruptly stops and he says "...and so on!" The whole audience burst into laughter after the shock wore off.
I really wish this video was just a 4 second soundbit of a V-I. ;)
^_^
Famous classic rock-era use of the Picardy third: "Roundabout" by Yes.
Really cool!
Michael P. Dawson More commonly know a-
*to be continued*
Hell yea picardy third
I know, right? I've been wanting to talk about it for ages but I couldn't find a way to make a whole video about it, so I was super excited to be able to slide it in here!
how many chord qualities of hopeful resolve are you on?
picardy third
you are like a little baby, watch this
*whole orchestra finishes on a big Maj9#11 I chord*
JeremyMcElhone thats how roundabout ends
when I was in middle school and our orchestra teacher taught us about picardy thirds, I asked if there was something that was the opposite (so ending with a minor chord when you've been in major), and apparently there isn't, so I guess we just gotta name that after me. feel free to use a Mae-Mae third
I've been listening to the argentinian folk/prog band Sui Generis for quite a while and that technique got me nuts, they use it in many many endings. I tried to analyse what in hell they where doing finishing a minor progression with the mayor chord (I thought they used something of a mayor harmonic scale). After a year or so, now I understand. Thanks!
How about just leaving out the last chord all together?
Just like: | D A | Bmi G |
That gives a very different kind of unresolvedness and I find this very useful to use when the lyrics of the whole song don't really have a conclusion.
That works too! It's basically a color chord ending, although with a relatively simple color chord. I like leaving it hanging on the IV, that's really interesting!
ive heard certain songs have a certain motif that gets played in the middle of the song, then towards the end, the chop off the second half of that motif and use it as an ending, as well as with other variations too
That's a great technique! I really should've mentioned using motifs, there's a lot of ways you can use them. By the time I'd gotten to the section on melody and lyrics I was wrapping things up and didn't want it to run too long, but that probably would've been worth including anyway. Good catch!
@@12tone you should do another video, I’d watch it.
Functionally, the Picardy third ends on a happier note and so people might leave happier, but I remember one of my teachers saying that historically, it was used metaphorically, where the minor key represents suffering on earth and the sudden major chord represents going to heaven.
That's true! The Picardy third was primarily used in church music, so it has some pretty deep ties to Christian imagery. I decided to focus on the more functional aspects because if anyone decides to use it today, that's gonna be more relevant to them, but the history is also super important. Thanks for mentioning it!
Man, I never knew the "vegas ending" had a name. Though I tried searching for "vegas ending" and I can't find any info on it.
Yeah, it's possible that's just the name that the teachers at my school called it, but that's what I know it as. Rock is generally less formally documented than jazz or classical, though, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was more commonly used than that but wasn't written down much of anywhere. There's also the problem (At least from my research) that the game "Fallout: New Vegas" has multiple possible endings, and given the internet's love of Fallout the most popular search results are all about those. I honestly don't know how widespread the term is, but it's the one I was taught, and it certainly fits.
Hahaha, yeah. I've definitely heard that ending many, many times, so I was excited to finally have a name for it. I guess I'll start using it!
I know Rock Band calls them "Big Rock Endings." In fact, in the first game, since it was a game mechanic to score points by going crazy during a big rock ending, Harmonix asked as many of the artists as they could to record and insert a big rock ending into the songs.
I attended a Joe Satriani show where he called it the "Woodstock ending"
I've always heard them called "trash can endings."
I love Don't Talk To Strangers' end, it's a chord inversion from the same main riff, but it gives the ending a more soothing feel than the rest of the song
Really cool!
This video helped me a lot...the more I watch your channel, the more I love it! I love the candies at the ending too hahahah
Keep on rocking 12tone!! \o/
Simplifying a motif from the song works for finishes too.
Yeah, that's a good one too!
I always referred to the Vegas ending as just the big rock ending
That should be a full song!
what about just ending like in pull me under by dream theater?
If you haven't gone down the rabbit hole of barbershop tags, it's well worth your time to do so -- it's some truly epic singing
This is a fantastically descriptive video, please follow-up on this as you find more ways to end songs
I've noticed that Picardy thirds are used very liberally in Korean pop music, of all places! Though they're almost always at the end of an intermediate chord progression rather than right at the very end of the song, if that's what you were specifically referring to in the video.
Interesting! I'd generally heard about the Picardy third mostly at the ends of compositions, but I suppose if you had one at the end of a cadence it'd probably still count, or at least be the same basic idea.
My favourite outro is a Chet Baker version of 'I Get Along Without You Very Well'. It has a long list of chords to reach a very expected conclusion yet from the very first chord in the outro progression you can tell what is coming. How does that happen? How can you foreshadow the next part in a song?
I like your explanation of rall endings, crescendo, decrescendo, etc and the pull of some notes to the tonic yet I feel there is more. You do mention that this is just touching on the subject. I find it fascinating. : )
It is something I have difficulty with in my own work. Abrupt and unconventional changes that make perfect sense to me when I'm writing can be tricky for people who haven't worked with me much so I guess the soothsayer like ability to say what is coming up can be really useful.
We heard an example of everything but the Vegas Ending. Probably the most famous Vegas Ending is Freebird.
2:48 Have yopu been listening to hamilton by any chance :)
A cool Beatlesque ending is the flat-VI then tonic. Used in With a Little Help From My Friends (all the way down the flat-six scale, then I). McCartney also used it in “Come and Get It” which he wrote for Badfinger.
Can you please do a video on the dance of eternity by dream theater. Great video.
Phil Elverum's method of resolution is to end on a mood chord rather than the I or any cadence to the I, i find that the most interesting way of going about it
One of the most astonishing (and great) endings I've heard was by a Gainesville band: czcams.com/video/EHRxSRgdq8g/video.html
They sort of slip into syncopated half time and use kind of a triple meter melody (chord falls away) to abruptly resolve V7 to I.
I'd never heard of them before, but that sounds really cool! Thanks for sharing!
Is the 2143 an out there outro chord progression, a reference to Battlefield or about the real time frequency analyser?
Is it weird that I put the Picardy third on everything?
Nah, if it sounds good to you then go for it!
A great example of this latter type of ending is Stairway to Heaven.
Best ending of a piece of music: Charles Ives' Symphony no. 2
Cool, I'll have to check it out!
Crazy by Gnarls Barkley ends on a Picardy third. The i to I change happens in the bridge after the chorus twice in the tune before that, though, so we don't hear the I for the first time at the end. Does that still count?
Really cool! I think it still counts, as long as the song is mostly in minor.
In my band we called the "button" a "BONK" and I once had a song with 20 bonks.
Oh the Bonk Note.
That should be its technical name.
Nice video ! I think you coulgood pick a better example for the picardy third, like the good ole IV - V - VI with the VI major that one's epic as fuck
Oh, I love that progression! You could also do like a transposition halfway and slow down a bit, so it's like (assuming I didn't mess up the notation) IV - V - VIb - VIIb - I
oh yeah I do that all the time ! And you can transpose every two chords for as long as you want, it never stops to sound glorious ^^
What about fade outs? Underused especially more recently imo
great monday morning cheat shit....to get an idea what you not want , and go with what is left
haha i love picardy third
I know, right? I really wanted to talk about it, but I couldn't really give it its own episode, so I was pretty excited to sneak it in here.
is it just me or is that section in the beginning eerily similar to "let my love open the door"?
I'm not familiar with the song, but that wouldn't surprise me, it's a pretty common chord progression and a pretty common playing pattern!
12tone its pete townshends most famous solo career hit, but even i didnt know about til recently
I'm surprised you didn't talk about tagging endings.
Great point! I considered it, but we'd just mentioned them in our last video on 32-bar form and I didn't want regular viewers to think I was repeating myself too much. They're a really great technique, though, and I probably could've gone a bit more in depth than last time. Thanks for pointing them out!
what are those
2:48 *door squeak* HOW DOES A
IT WAS THE EXACT RYTHM!!!!
So... Viva Las Vegas!
I'm pretty sure Down in a Hole by Alice in Chains uses a Picardy third.
Interesting! I don't know the song very well, I'll have to look it up!
That actually makes sense in the context of the song.
nah, end on the 1, but end it on a dah danh
Lmao just fade out