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Riffs

In previous chapters we learned how to create a Pattern which becomes a part of a Sequence. And how to set a musical style by defining a Groove.

These predfined Grooves are wonderful things. And, yes, entire accompaniment tracks can be created with just some chords and few Grooves. But, often we want a bit of variety in the track.

The Riff command permits the setting of an alternate pattern for any track for a single bar-this overrides the current Sequence for that track.

The syntax for Riff is very similar to that of Define, with the execption that no pattern name is used. You might think of Riff as the setting of an Sequence with an anonymous pattern.

A Riff is set with the command:

Track Riff Pattern

where:

Track
is any valid MMA track name,
Pattern
is any existing pattern name defined for the specified track, or a pattern definition following the same syntax as a Define. In addition the pattern can be a single ``z'', indicating no pattern for the specified track.

Following is a short example using Riff to change the Chord Pattern:

Groove Rhumba
1 Fm7
2 Bb7
3 EbM7
Chord Riff 1 4 100; 3 8 90; 3.666 8 80; 4.333 8 70
4 Eb6 / Eb
5 Fm7

In this case we have a Rhumba Groove for the song. But, in bar 4 we want to emphasize the melodic pattern by chording a quarter-note triplet over beats 3 and 4. In this case we have defined the pattern right in the Riff command.

Our next example shows that Riff patterns can be defined just like the patterns used in a sequence.

Begin Drum
  Define Emph1 1 0 128
  Define Emph8 Emph1 * 8
End
 
Groove Blues
 
1 C
2 G
Drum1 Riff Emph8
3 G
4 F
5 C

In this case we have defined the Emph8 pattern as a series of eighth notes. We then apply this for the 3rd bar. If you compile and play this example you will hear a sporadic handclap on bar 3. The Drum1 track is using a handclap tone with a random skip factor (previously defined in the Blues groove).

The special pattern ``z'' can be used to turn off a track for a single bar. This is similar to using a ``z'' in the Sequence directive.

A few things to keep in mind when using Riffs:

Riffs can also be used to specify a bar of music in a Solo or Melody track. Please see the ``Solo and Melody'' chapter ([*]).


next up previous
Next: Musical Data Format Up: Reference Manaul Previous: Grooves
2004-07-25