5667 / 18210 · Workshop 39 — “Watermelon Man”: Blues-Funk Vocabulary, Dominant Vamps, Riffs as Harmony, and Making Repetition Feel Inevitable Instead of Boring← prev⊞ allnext →
39.97Riffs also have harmonic function
A riff can:
- establish tonic
- imply blue notes
- mark section boundaries
- create dominant tension
- announce return
So horizontal material can perform jobs traditionally associated with chord progression.
This connects back to our line-first harmony work.