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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
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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
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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
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
For reference: Solo at 2:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGSHIidlesQ
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https://youtu.be/CBJey2dkiAI
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
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
and then there is dance music and funk...
ostinato city... lol..