The Eclectic Banjo - Posted - 04/12/2026:  10:44:42

Is there any special notification (hand or banjo gesture, announcement “ENDING LICK”, eye contact, etc.) I should do for the jam participants before performing an ending lick, like Cripple Creek’s shave and a haircut lick? I usually lift my foot to signify the song’s end somewhere in the last part. But it seems like whenever I start the actual lick everyone just kind of keeps playing the progression until they notice I’m doing something special.

Texasbanjo - Posted - 04/12/2026:  11:13:06

Most of the jams I've been in, people watch whoever started the tune/song and follow his/her lead. Sometimes it's lifting a foot, sometimes it's a nod of the head. It's the other jammer's business to watch the leader and catch whatever gesture is given for the ending.

At the end of a vocal, I usually just end up with a couple of bars of the chorus to end the song. I do about the same thing; i.e. a couple of bars of the end of an instrumental.

LouieChee - Posted - 04/12/2026:  11:41:18

For most jammers, when they see the foot lift they're prepared to end the song when they hear the end of the tag. They will probably play until the very last note, which is maybe what you're asking about. The "shave and haircut" tags happen on a 1 chord, so most players will probably back you up until the very last note (but not past).

stumpkicker - Posted - 04/12/2026:  12:59:03

For songs I usually just say “ tag it” and repeat the last line. Leaving out the last word and plugging in a closing lick.  E.G.

In the sky Lord, in the sky. 

 “tag it”

In the sky Lord in the.  (lick).

Works well for me.

chuckv97 - Posted - 04/12/2026:  14:13:30

I mute all the strings with left hand fingers, then play the S&H , most others come in on the last 2 beats (on “2 bits" which are the 5 and 1 chords)

Edited by - chuckv97 on 04/12/2026 14:15:11

RB3 - Posted - 04/13/2026:  06:11:12

Just do the "ending lick", and make sure it's loud. That's the purpose of the ending lick; it sends a message to the other players that you're taking responsibility for ending the song. If the other people don't stop playing, that's their problem.

Ira Gitlin - Posted - 04/13/2026:  06:46:05

It helps to recognize that things are done differently for songs with lyrics, compared with instrumentals. "Shave and a haircut" licks are almost never done to end songs; only to end instrumentals.  A shave-and-a-haircut ending--always four beats long, often followed by a second four-beat shave-and-a-haircut ending--is tacked on AFTER the whole tune is ended. This is in contrast with songs, where there may be a four-beat ending phrase, but it's PART OF the song itself, not a separate add-on.



Songs may end right on the fourth beat of the last phrase. Just listen to almost any classic bluegrass recording. Typically, the very last syllable of the lyric will end on beat one, and the picking continues for three more beats, stopping on the beat, like this: [last syllable]-2-3-4. A friend of mine likes to teach this by reminding students: [last syllable]-"I'm REAL-ly GON-na stop NOW!" 

There are various licks--really, special-purpose tag licks--that you can do at the end of a vocal number to signal that you're going to stop four beats from now, as explained in the previous paragraph. You only ever play them at the very end of the entire song (unless you're deliberately trying to mess people up ).

It's also common, in a vocal number, to repeat the last line, or sometimes the last two lines if that feels intuitive (as in "Dark Hollow", "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms", or "Old Home Place"). To signal this, the song leader can rotate the headstock of the instrument, or a finger, or a fiddle bow, or whatever, or call out "Tag!" or "Tag it!"



IMNSHO, the raised foot is often used INCORRECTLY. It should be used to mean, "finish up what your doing, and end at the earliest normal opportunity". If a foot is raised during the last line of a song, that means, "finish this line and that's the end"--in other words, NO TAG. Yet all too often I have seen a raised foot followed by a vocal tag. To me, this feels like the car ahead of me signaling a right turn, and then turning left. If a foot is raised during an AABB instrumental, it'll mean "finish up the full form "--i.e., AABB--"and that's the end." Shave-and-a-haircut endings may or may not follow, at the discretion of the pickers.



"Cripple Creek", however, presents a special difficulty. Most of us, following Earl's lead, start the tune with a pinch on the offbeat, fretted at the second fret, to set up that slide to the fifth fret. BUT--several of the most common shave-and-a-haircut endings also start with that same fretted pinch and slide. So when people hear the beginning of that shave-and-a-haircut ending, they may well think you're starting another A part and going through the tune again--especially if they're already kind of vague on the meaning of the raised foot. (Or perhaps the musical cue overrides the gestural cue for them.) I've seen this happen MANY times in my life!

Ks_5-picker - Posted - 04/13/2026:  21:27:14

I find that lifting the banjo neck right before the ending gets much more attention than lifting my foot.
If I’m playing with experienced folks I rarely tag vocal number but when jamming with newbies I usually do.