Songs that don't resolve at the end

It's almost taken for granted that a song will resolve at the end, meaning it will move back to the tonic chord to give us that sense of completion and finality. But a song doesn't have to resolve at the end and by not doing so it can create a bittersweet sense of incompletion or longing.

📌 5:15 the roman numeral above Ebm should be “bvi”, not iv. Sorry for any confusion and thanks to the commenter who brought it to my attention.

And, an extra special thanks goes to Chase Heeler, Peter Keller, Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel’s Patreon saints! 😇

0:00 Resolving to the tonic
0:30 end on the V chord
2:13 end on the IV chord
4:06 We Are The Champions
5:13 Live and Let Die
6:03 HDpiano
6:44 end on the vi chord
7:53 end on the iii chord
9:19 the most unresolved ending ever...
9:43 Patreon

[DavidBennettPiano]

📌 5:15 TYPO the roman numeral above Ebm should be “bvi”, not iv. Sorry for any confusion and thanks to the commenter who brought it to my attention.
Also, 2:52 to G chord is IV not I 😅

[xXMaxOXx]

my favorite example of an unresolved chord is "are we still friends" by tyler the creator, because it gets resolved when you play the first track of the album again, so it creates a musical loop additional to the storytechnical loop.

[gemfyre]

Every time I hear We Are The Champions I'm always waiting for a final "of the on the end.

[Pandamasque]

My LG microwave's little melody for "your food is ready" is unresolved, which makes me mentally add a tonic tone every time I hear it.

[pensivepenguin]

The ending of Brightside still feels like such a solid landing somehow

[fontagnus]

Seeing Beatles’ Revolver album on the thumbnail, I was expecting a mention of For No One, but my hope was left unresolved…

[aaronclift]

"People Are Strange" by The Doors has one of my favorite unresolved endings. The word painting is perfect because it ends on the word "strange."

[raiderofthelostmeme]

My favorite example of a song not resolving at the end is "for no one" by the beatles. Its a song about lost love, a love that "should have lasted years" and while shes moved on, you cant get over what you had, ending both your love for her, as well as the song itself, unresolved. Truly heartbreaking

[RenAigu]

5:00 Yeah, no but We are the Champions does get resolved, almost everytime, at least when there's a crowd singing along. Ending that way almost ensures the crowd finished it for you ".... of the

[forkrunner]

My favorite example of this is “Once a Day” by Mac Miller, which is the last track on the album “Circles.” The last note of the song is very discordant, but, if you let the album loop, you’ll realize that the first note of the first song, the title track, is actually the resolution to the last—making for a perfect loop!

[Sammysosa]

Lucky from OK Computer is just amazing...
The chord progression in E minor, flirting mith major dominant seventh's, ending on that C7 to the delicate B7. Must listen, one of THE best by Radiohead

[aviation_nut]

I never thought of the sustained chord at the end of We Are the Champions making it "more" resolved. If anything, a sustained chord ADDS to the incompleteness, because sustaining a chord by itself is something that is typically resolved by going to the unsustained counterpart.

[Jessica_Kirk]

9:41 that was funny. Almost as if the song hit the record scratch!

[Zantor]

Best example of a non-resolving song ending is "Pull Me Under" By Dream Theater. The only way I can describe it is "It just sort of stops"
Before I knew this was intentional, I always thought the mp3 had bugged or something. It's the most abrupt ending to the song

[shawnthompson]

I don’t understand a single music term used here, but it’s nice to hear the snippets and get a feel for what you’re saying anyway. I don’t know why but no matter how hard I try, I just cannot grasp things like pitch, tone, notes, keys, chords, etc.

I have an intuitive understanding of these things. My boyfriend is very musical, and he has commented that I match the tone/pitch/note/key (I put all those terms because idk which one(s) he’s said and I don’t logically know what they mean) of songs I listen to, and that I can accurately predict where things are going in new music I’m listening to, and I have an intuitive understanding of these things. But no matter how many times he tries to explain stuff like keys, chords, notes, etc. I just cannot grasp them for some reason. It just… doesn’t make sense to me. No matter what. I can hear when things are right or good, and when they’re wrong or bad, but I can’t tell you why they’re right/good or wrong/bad.

Anyway, it’s funny to me because this video was a lot like any musical conversation with my bf. Anytime you used any sort of musical term it was like gibberish and made no sense but then you played a clip and I’m like “yeah there’s no resolution here” or “totally I can hear there’s not any real resolution but there’s still a hint of it in there somewhere”

[sushiboi]

9:35 honestly thats probably the funniest ending to a song ive ever heard

[pi-sxmb]

Yaay! Before I even clicked on this video title, "And Your Bird Can Sing" came to mind. Such an underrated masterpiece!

[jonathanwingmusic]

I really like the Queen "We Are The Champions" example – it makes the song all the more interesting, giving it both an infinite quality (it's almost like ending there allows it to loop in your mind if that makes any sense, because you can hear "of the coming on the F chord). But also leaving out both the chord and the final lyric casts a shadow of doubt and mystery over that final line, uncertainty over being a champion in the end – which I find quite interesting. It's worth noting that in the live versions of that song, they would complete the final line and end on the tonic chord. Perhaps leaving it linger for thousands of fans in a stadium would have been overwhelmingly tense! ;)

[loseryoutube]

A wonderful example for me is 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams'! The ending part, which is already a complete mess in my opinion, suddenly and abruptly ends the F minor song with a quick E5 power chord. Such a weird yet cool ending!

[jonashormann]

I always liked the ending of Good Day Sunshine. It sort of end on a modulated V chord