Technical question......Song endings

lsits

Gold Member
What do you call the ending to a song where everyone just wails for about 15 or 20 seconds before a final cymbal crash? I've heard them referred to as concert endings, flourishes, and free-for-alls (ok, I made that last one up). I'd like to expand my repertoire of these watchamacallits incorporating a double pedal. The thing about youtube is that you have to know what something is called before you can search for it. \
 
Crash-End'O

If they're musical, I think they're considered a coda... If it's just loud chaos, I've seen "Count-Out" and in the studio "(Long/Short) End(ing) On Cue"
 
I believe it can be called a fermata.
 
Yea, fermata. On a sheet of music it looks like this .) just turn your head to the right and move the dot to the center. Normally used in concert pieces. The director just holds his hands out and you hold whatever note it says(drumroll for us or a cymbal crash or whatever) until he cuts you off and in more advances songs there can be more than one scattered around the song.

Here's a better explanation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermata
 
I'd like to expand my repertoire of these watchamacallits incorporating a double pedal. The thing about youtube is that you have to know what something is called before you can search for it. \

Watch the end of any Metallica song performed live (should cover every cliche in the book) ; )
 
No, this kind of ending has a proper name. It is called a:
"We don't know how to end this song so all of the instruments will start taking a loud solo all at the same time on the last chord of the song, and when the band leader gets tired of hearing all of the noise he nods his head and the drummer crashes the cymbal or rolls out on the big tom and bass drum and everyone stops playing"
ending.

.
 
Watch the end of any Metallica song performed live (should cover every cliche in the book) ; )

I'm not above cliche'. I do the outro from Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" when the surf band plays "Wipeout".
 
No, this kind of ending has a proper name. It is called a:
"We don't know how to end this song so all of the instruments will start taking a loud solo all at the same time on the last chord of the song, and when the band leader gets tired of hearing all of the noise he nods his head and the drummer crashes the cymbal or rolls out on the big tom and bass drum and everyone stops playing"
ending.

.

I'm glad there's a name for it. :)
 
No, this kind of ending has a proper name. It is called a:
"We don't know how to end this song so all of the instruments will start taking a loud solo all at the same time on the last chord of the song, and when the band leader gets tired of hearing all of the noise he nods his head and the drummer crashes the cymbal or rolls out on the big tom and bass drum and everyone stops playing"
ending.

.

LOL...pretty much.

In every bands I've been in, we just called it the big ending. And it was saved for the last song. Every other song we would work out an ending.
 
It's also commonly referred to as a "trash can ending". It's a reference to some famous classical music composer (I can't remember who) that said drum solos sound like a bunch of trash cans falling down stairs.
 
Well, there doesn't appear to be a consensus as to what these things are called. I don't believe that it's a fermata. If I remember correctly a fermata is also known as a hold or a pause. What I'm referring to is where everybody on stage tries to cram as many notes as possible into the ending. I guess that my term "Free-for-all" works as well as any other.
 
I and some others, used to call that type of ending a "Grand Funk Railroad" ending. That band always seemed to just play those types of long endings.
 
Well, there doesn't appear to be a consensus as to what these things are called. I don't believe that it's a fermata. If I remember correctly a fermata is also known as a hold or a pause. What I'm referring to is where everybody on stage tries to cram as many notes as possible into the ending. I guess that my term "Free-for-all" works as well as any other.

Yeah, definitely not fermata- a fermata, traditionally, means to hold a note to the performer's (or conductor's) discretion, not to improvise wildly.

For reference, this is how Rock Band handles it.

If they're musical, I think they're considered a coda.

A coda is generally an ending, yes, but they are written and utilized with the markings "D.C.-" or "D.S. Al Coda" and come in the middle of a repeated section of the piece.
 
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