Coda

A concluding passage that ends a piece, often reached by a jump from an earlier repeat direction.

The coda is the tail of a piece, kept separate from the main form so that it is played only once at the very end. In printed music it is marked with its own symbol and reached either by a coda sign or by a written direction such as to coda. Guitarists meet it most often in arrangements of standards and in ensemble charts, where a short coda figure replaces a long final repeat and gives the piece a clean ending.

Example: A song whose last chorus is cut short by a two-bar tag marked with the coda sign ends with its coda.

Coda

See also