Exploring Endings in Music

Right, let's look at an ending. Let's break that down. What kind of thing was I doing? Essentially, I'm repeating the same thing over and over, just with slightly different harmonization.

Main Harmony

• The main harmony is this kind of thing.
• Then doing the same, and the last time doing that, which is, I think, a very Dr. John kind of thing to do.
• Then a little A flat kind of 13 vibe there, going to G13.

Analyzing Variations

So let's look at that. What kind of thing was I doing?

• The second one is kind of going down.
• Left hand doing that, the right hand harmonizing that with the G constantly there, sliding off that.

So the all coming down together.

Left Hand and Right Hand Techniques

Now, the first one, I'm not exactly sure what I did, but essentially the left hand was just going. And maybe the right hand was going.

I'm really doing a sort of rolling version of this ending at the moment.

Riffs and Variations

You could do other things like where are we?

• That first one, remember that riff from earlier on when we were looking at different variations?
• That's from that kind of riff we looked at earlier.

Then we're onto the second one there.

12 Bar Context

That's a riff actually we can look at as well, just in the general context of the 12 bar.

But obviously at the ending here, I think it's quite effective changing the octave.

• So doing: [play the riff]

Yeah, rather than just going: [play a simpler version]

Actually changing the octave really gives it a bit of direction and dynamic.

• So, you know, up the octave.
• And again, you could almost do that last one.
• Another octifier, so something like: [play it]

Could be fun!

Fun with Endings

The other little endings, let's have a go at:

• Swapping the order that things come in.
• How about doing something like that?

Not quite sure exactly what I did there, but you could do:

• You could roll.
• You could do the same thing over and over again, but up an octave each time.

Something like this: [play the example]

Going back to that thing riff we looked at earlier with the octave on either side.

So in context, with the left hand still doing that, so something like this. I think that's quite cool, doing exactly the same thing in each octave.

• Just that AB13 to the G13 at the end.

Creative Directions

How about just doing something at the end which goes in the opposite direction? For example, that little Dr. John lick:

• Something like that.
• Add a little flat five at the end.

Or a thing that James Booker used to do.

Yeah, all sorts of fun endings. You could take it anywhere.

I mean, for example, you could take it to that kind of harmony.

Conclusion

Hey, sorry about that. Got a little carried away. But just to show that endings don't just have to be really straightforward.

• You can have fun with them.
• You can take them out.

Obviously, there, I kind of took it to the relative minor E minor to the 2 5, back to the relative minor 14.