Endings

Exploring Common Ending Patterns in Music

Just as you checked out bridges to become more aware of commonly found patterns, the same thing applies to endings. There are several notable ending patterns to explore.

Common Ending Patterns

• 2-5-1 Ending
  A whole bunch of tunes end with a 2-5-1. For instance:

  • Take the 'A' Train
  • Fly Me to the Moon
    This pattern typically occurs in the home key. If you'd like to check out the separate PDF about endings, you can find a list of about 30 tunes that utilize the 2-5-1 ending.

• 3-6-2-5 Ending
  Another very commonly found ending is the 3-6-2-5 ending. This is similar to what we had in "Ornithology." You can observe this in tunes like On Green Dolphin Street, where suddenly you have four chords in two bars, rather than spreading the 2-5-1 or 3-6-2-5 over two bars.

Additional Types of Endings

If you look at the PDF, you'll find a few other types of endings described. It's useful to be aware of these when you encounter them.

Extending the Ending

One more thing about endings is that if you're playing with a singer, it's really common to extend the ending.

Example Technique:

• If it ends in a 2-5-1, one way to extend is to move the II-V up a tone and back. An example of this is found in Fly Me to the Moon.

• Original Ending:

  • That's it. That's what you've got in the arrangement.

• Extended Ending:

  • By moving that 2-5 up a tone from D minor to E minor, then back to the original D minor, you can extend the ending by 4 bars.

Sometimes this technique occurs repeatedly, creating what you might call a vamp ending. Musicians may start improvising over those four bars until the final C chord, or the I chord, is played on cue.