Have you ever spent time learning a Jazz tune and felt like something was missing?

The truth is, most jazz standards don’t come with built in endings. If you’re consulting a fake book or sheet music, the ending you’re left with is nothing more than the last written melody note.

Through all your great work learning the chords, melody and perhaps a bit of improvisation, one of the most important parts of Jazz music can often be left out of the practice room: the endings.

The funny thing is that for most listeners, the ending of a song is one of the most memorable moments.

The good news is that endings can be easily practiced and applied to almost any Jazz standard you find yourself playing. Not only that, but the more endings you learn, the more options you have for ending a tune.

In this lesson you’ll cover 5 classic Jazz guitar endings that can be utilized by anyone from beginners to advanced players.

Count Basie’s Ending

The first ending you’ll familiarize yourself with is a wonderful cadential idea that was popularized by one of the all time greatest minds in Jazz: Count Basie. This ending can be plugged into virtually any tune, but works best with medium to uptempo songs. Dig into the ending right away using the tabs and video.

You might be asking yourself how this ending can be applied to other keys. The answer to that question is in an analysis of the ending itself. The ending harmonizes a single note on the high-E string, in this case F, with an ascending chromatic line on the B-string (from Bb to C). The above Count Basie example is in the key of F, the same note that you find on the high-E string. By taking the note on the high-E string, the F, and moving it to the tonic of the key you find yourself in, you’ll successfully change the key of the ending. Check out the Count Basie ending in the key of Eb below for reference.

One more key piece of information you will need to know to get the most out of this ending is how to place it in the context of the song.

There are two options for placing the Count Basie ending.

#1 If the melody ends on a beat three or four you’ll wait till beat three of the next bar before starting the ending.

#2 If the melody ends on beat three you can either play the ending on beat three of the following bar like in option #1 or on the same beat that your melody ends on. This works best when the last note in the melody is the same as the tonic of the key you’re playing in (eg. melody ends with an F in the key of F).

Joe Pass Ending Lick

The second ending you’ll be learning in this lesson is an ending that was used by the Jazz guitar virtuoso himself, Joe Pass. This is another extremely versatile ending that can be applied in a huge number of musical situations and is most commonly performed in medium to uptempo tunes.

Here is the Joe Pass ending in the key of G:

After analyzing the the ending, you may notice that two notes in the G major scale are emphasized here. The G and the D are both accentuated by diatonic approach notes. The D is approached by E and C#, whereas the G is approached by A and F#.

Want to learn more about the approach note technique? Check out my 3-part lesson series on the approach note technique here.

Accentuating the I (G) and the V (D) give the ending a continuous V-I-V-I feel, even though not a single chord is played.

This ending can be transposed by playing the I and V of the key you wish to play in. So, for example, in the key of F you’ll isolate the V (C) and I (F).

The Joe Pass ending can also be played starting from any beat at anytime. If the melody ends on beat 1, you can start it up on beats 2, 3, 4 or even wait till beat 1 of the next bar. This is a great ending to use right away because it has such a no-fuss application.

For an extra challenge, you can work on the Joe Pass double-time ending. This ending is the same as the previous, but played with twice as many notes and twice as quickly. Work on speeding this ending up over a number of sessions in the woodshed.

Endings with Chords

After playing a couple of line inspired endings, you’re now going to take a look how to end a tune with chords. As with most things in Jazz, there are an astounding number of approaches to ending a tune with chords. In order to get you on your feet right away with chord endings, included in this section are the chords you’re mostly likely to run into when playing with others or on the bandstand.

The first chord you’ll work on is the bIImaj7 chord. The bII or b2 note occurs on the flattened second scale degree of the major and minor scale. In order to help you understand how to identify the b2 scale degree, read through the example below. The b2 note is important because it’ll be used as the root note for the bIImaj7 chord.

In C major the b2 scale degree is Db .

. In F# minor the b2 scale degree is G .

. In Bb major the b2 scale degree is Cb .

. In Ab major the b2 scale degree is Bbb.

After identifying the bII scale degree in the key that the given tune is in, your next step will be to build a maj7 chord.

For this example, assume that the song is in the key of F major. In the key of F major the bIImaj7 chord is Gbmaj7, and is the same chord you’ll be ending the song with. There are a number of maj7 voicings you can experiment with. Below are a few common voicings of the Gbmaj7 chord.

Now that you have a few bIImaj7 voicings to work with, see how they line up with a full ii-V-bII-I progression. Jazz tunes commonly end with a ii-V-I. Including the bIImaj7 chord before the final Imaj7 resolution creates interesting and memorable tension. Here are all four chords of the ii-V-bII-I progression in the key of F.

After familiarizing yourself the chords above, you can start working on options for how to play them.

There are a number of approaches to playing the bII ending including: a strum, an arpeggiation or a combination of the two. Below are a few examples that cover some of the options available to you when executing a bII ending. Remember that you always have the option to leave out the final Imaj7 chord (Fmaj7 in this case). Leaving out the Imaj7 chord can leave the listener pleasantly surprised; not everything in Jazz needs to resolve!

Strum

Arpeggio

The Duke Ellington Ending

The Duke Ellington ending is wonderful way to close out a tune. The ending itself is similar in style to that of the first ending you learned in this lesson, the Count Basie ending. The main difference between the Ellington and Basie ending is that the Ellington ending will be played as a melodic line instead of harmonic intervals.

Below is the ending itself in the key of F major.

There are a couple of ways different ways to apply the Ellington ending to a tune.

#1 If the last melody note ends on any beat other than one, then the Ellington ending will be applied to the first beat of the next bar.

#2 If the last melody note ends on beat one, then you have the option of starting the ending on the last note of the melody. This option works best when the last note of the melody is the tonic note of the key that the song is in.

Moving this ending into another key involves the same process as the Basie ending. Take the starting note of the Ellington ending and shift it to the tonic note of the desired key. You can keep the ending on the high-string or try to work it out amongst other string groups. Below is an example of the ending in C major.

The Tag Ending

The last ending you’ll learn in this lesson is arguably the most effective and commonly employed ending in Jazz music, the tag. The term tag in Jazz music refers to repeating a specific musical idea or section of music. A tag generally occurs at the end of a section or at the end of the tune and usually isn’t longer than a few bars.

The tag provides a finishing statement that quotes the melody and promotes a memorable listening experience for the players and the listener.

For example, if you desired to repeat the last two bars at the end of the tune you would say something like, “tag the last two bars.”

Many tunes in the jazz standard repertoire have tags that are unwritten but played almost every time a given tune is called. Getting to know the appropriate tags for each song takes time, but there is certainly a lot you can do to make sure you’re on the right track.

The next time you learn a Jazz standard, ensure that you listen to as many different versions by as many different artists as possible. Listening to a number of different versions of the same tune will tell you immediately if there is a commonly played tag. Not only that, but all that listening will help you internalize all the nuances of how the greats played the repertoire.

For this example, we’ll take a look at the last four bars of a melody, and apply the tag ending. The first step is to play through the melody and get it under your fingers before applying the tag.

The section of melody that is highlighted in the example above is the part of the melody that will be tagged. You’ll notice that the last two notes of the melody isn’t included in the tag. In order to prolong the tension and the excitement of the tag ending, the last two notes are left out. After tagging the ending twice, you’ll play the very resolved sounding final note.

I love hearing your feedback on lessons, lesson topics, and general Jazz guitar discussion, so here’s what I’d like you to do next.

Leave a comment in the section below and let me know about your experiences in ending tunes. Which of the endings in this lesson will you be applying first to your playing?

Feel free to make a suggestion for future lesson topics as well.

Looking forward to hearing from you.