Playing in the band

Slowing down at the end is normal.

Give a cue to the drums - a single long chord on beat 1 held for the whole bar allows your drummer time to take the tempo down a touch/ perform an ornamented drum roll round the whole kit and so on and come to rest in the tonic chord with the lead player doing some form of cadenza. A single beat chord on beat 1 to finish.

Obviously, how you get there is another matter. You're best off extending the end sequence by repeating the chorus or outro chord patterns; don't write and new material for this bit.

A :-)

The problem appears, when we're playing songs that end with fadeout. It's really hard to fade out live, but sometimes u can slow the tempo gradually. So, i'd like u to share your experience about that.. Who pulls it back? guitar? Drums? I know that this feel comes spontaneously with time, but, is there any way to practice it?

First, a fadeout on the recording usually means the band couldn't figure out an ending, blew the ending, or the tracks couldn't be edited to simulate the players ending together.

Second it's probably gonna be the drums that drive the fadeout or ritard at the end. Depending on the drummer, you may find it easier just to decide on a way to end and dump the fade.

no matter how you end a song live, everyone should have their eyes on the one person who is leading the arrangement for that song -- unless due to that song's particular arrangement you agree that someone other than the musical leader will control the ending. then it's all eyes/ears on him/her. typically, this behavior becomes SOP for a group of people who play well together. ensemble musicianship is just as much about listening and watching as it is playing.

if you want to simulate a fade. ritards will do it to some extent. also consider playing more sparsely, even dropping out instruments one-by-one. but as pointed out above, fading is not usually a very effective or satisfying way of ending a live tune. exercise your arranging chops and work up some other dynamic alternatives.

I've been in quite a few different bands for many, many years and we've never faded anything out. It works on the recording, so the radio DJ can talk over the end of the song, but it really doesn't work well.

My advice is to make endings for the songs and forget about the fade out.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Thanks all you guys. I know, u can't really end songs live w/ fade out.. I was just wondering how u end your songs. We'll be working on that 'slowing-down-at-the-end' thing, of course:) I guess we just need to find a way to communicate some more..

Thanks all you guys. I know, u can't really end songs live w/ fade out.. I was just wondering how u end your songs. We'll be working on that 'slowing-down-at-the-end' thing, of course:) I guess we just need to find a way to communicate some more..

Can you give us an example or two of songs that are giving you trouble?

Does anyone do medleys anymore?

Ok, the songs we're playing: Psycho by the Sonics - we will sometimes expand the last riff. Again, the idea is to know when to stop the song. We agreed today, that I will nod my head to show the drummer, that we're ending:).

Pixies's Caribou ends nicely on long G, but again, i want to be able to postpone the end as long as needed.

Summertime blues by Blue cheer gives us problems altogether, but, i guess knowing how to play that one is really about knowing your bandmembers:)

Basically, i'm in search for ways to improve communication in the band. How do you signal your drummer / bassist etc that the end is coming. If a band can make this idea work, then, ending a song is not a problem anymore, right?

Thanks all you guys. I know, u can't really end songs live w/ fade out.. I was just wondering how u end your songs. We'll be working on that 'slowing-down-at-the-end' thing, of course:) I guess we just need to find a way to communicate some more..

Can you give us an example or two of songs that are giving you trouble?

Does anyone do medleys anymore?

Sure do. I also love arranging so we can segue from one song directly into another like this (long video follows!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J6rue6YFVQ

That was a nice smooth transition, Moonrider.
How do you signal your drummer / bassist etc that the end is coming.

A pre-arranged gesture.
Make eye contact.
Nod towards someone.
yell (off mic) "let's end this turkey" or something

Zappa used to "conduct" his band fairly often. Sometimes like an orchestra conductor, but most often just to re-direct the song into an other direction if he thought it might be cool.
In every interview I've heard from any musician who played for him, they say that there was a bunch of pre-arranged gestures that Zappa might make at any time, and the band was expected to change direction on the fly to react.
Maybe one gesture would mean "marimba fill here". Another would mean "Louie Louie for 4 bars, then resume where we were.

Watch some concert videos of bands that like to change things up a lot and see what they do.