What's this called?

roundthebend

I guess it's a modal technique, but I'm a bit weak on applying this stuff.

Where a riff is repeating over and over but the bass is moving around, probably in a given scale, so as to create a modal tension.

Radiohead's Street Spirit is a reasonable example of it.

The opposite is where the bass or guitar riff always "pedals" off the same note, but the riff moves around and progresses.

Is there a common term for it?

Funkfingers

The latter is an ostinato (or ground) bass.

Clarky

a repeating phrase or motif usually in the same instrument / voice is an ostinato

roundthebend

@Clarky @Funkfingers ;
Thanks both. Ostinato seems to cover the repeating part, which is great. I wondered if there was a specific term for using a complimentary melody or bass line which varies (perhaps to shift the modal feel).

This video shows how it can be really musical, but just refers to it as Ostinato. I think that's only half of the story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlaaJXtUvh8

I think Sweet Child O' Mine is a great example of this. The Ostinato piece is complimented with a changing 'pedal' note: D, E, G

Jalapeno

Intro to Where The Streets Have No Name another one - Edge plays the same pattern and Adam Clayton's bass plays a simple progression, ending in the upper register to drive a resolution (and a time change from 6:8 to 4:4)

viz

Yes it’s still an ostanato. Ostinato (meaning obstinate) just means a note (or notes) doesn’t change. This applies whether it’s the bass pedal that remains constant, or like in your question, when it’s the upper voices that don’t change. 

When it’s the bass note that doesn’t change, you can be more specific by calling it basso ostinato. A great example is the beginning of Rachmaninov’s ‘Don’t Sing for Me Beautiful Maiden’ which repeats the bass note through a descending middle voice of two whole octaves. 

https://youtu.be/9cJOyPUftz4

So for these examples where it’s the upper voice that doesn’t change, you could call it soprano ostinato or treble ostinato. An example of treble ostinato from classical music is the beginning of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.  

https://youtu.be/j50ar2walNs

Paul_C

The solo in Marillion's Three Boats Down From The Candy is another where the first note changes but the remaining pattern remains the same, something I like a lot and one of only two Steve Rothery parts I can play

Clarky

roundthebend said:

@Clarky @Funkfingers ;
Thanks both. Ostinato seems to cover the repeating part, which is great. I wondered if there was a specific term for using a complimentary melody or bass line which varies (perhaps to shift the modal feel).

This video shows how it can be really musical, but just refers to it as Ostinato. I think that's only half of the story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlaaJXtUvh8

I think Sweet Child O' Mine is a great example of this. The Ostinato piece is complimented with a changing 'pedal' note: D, E, G

an ostinato is a repeating motif..
if you change one or more notes you have 'developed the motif' [or gone and done what my lecturer referred to as 'motific development']..
if this newly developed motif repeats itself, it's an ostinato.. it's just a new one that s using the new developed motif

Clarky

Clarky said:

roundthebend said:

@Clarky @Funkfingers ;
Thanks both. Ostinato seems to cover the repeating part, which is great. I wondered if there was a specific term for using a complimentary melody or bass line which varies (perhaps to shift the modal feel).

This video shows how it can be really musical, but just refers to it as Ostinato. I think that's only half of the story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlaaJXtUvh8

I think Sweet Child O' Mine is a great example of this. The Ostinato piece is complimented with a changing 'pedal' note: D, E, G

an ostinato is a repeating motif..
if you change one or more notes you have 'developed the motif' [or gone and done what my lecturer referred to as 'motific development']..
if this newly developed motif repeats itself, it's an ostinato.. it's just a new one that s using the new developed motif

Lamb of God: Walk With Me In Hell

Bellycaster

Are we talking the same thing as the song "Can U Dig It" by Mock Turtles,where the Guitar Solo repeats the same line, but sounds like it's changing because the Bass Line is changing underneath the solo? If that makes sense.

For reference: Solo at 2:40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGSHIidlesQ

.

Maynehead

Here’s an example that popped into my head.

https://youtu.be/CBJey2dkiAI

roundthebend

Great stuff, thank you all - @Clarky @Jalapeno @viz ;
It's amazing how the technique is used in so many different styles of music to great effect.

@Bellycaster - yes, nice example

@Paul_C, @Maynehead - good examples

Clarky

roundthebend said:

Great stuff, thank you all - @Clarky @Jalapeno @viz ;
It's amazing how the technique is used in so many different styles of music to great effect.

@Bellycaster - yes, nice example

@Paul_C, @Maynehead - good examples

no probs matey...
this sort of thing goes back before JS Bach, so it's hundreds of years old
and it's so cool sounding it's still in use today..
I've done myself in many songs and compositions long before I even knew what it was called..
I just knew it could make a simple little phrase sound really nice as everything else moves around it..

it works with longer phrases too..
this is beautiful..
just a 2 note ostinato from the piano.. and then the longer one from the lead guitar..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST2H8FWDvEA

roundthebend

Wowser, multiple Ostinato at one time. Powerful piece of music indeed @Clarky ;

Clarky

roundthebend said:

Wowser, multiple Ostinato at one time. Powerful piece of music indeed @Clarky ;

I love that piece.. I wish I'd written that
and then there is dance music and funk... 
ostinato city... lol..