5758 / 18210 · Workshop 40 — “The Sidewinder”: Hard Bop Groove, Dominant-Blues Harmony, Riff Layering, and How to Make a Vamp Feel Like a Full Arrangement← prev⊞ allnext →
40.89Mini-composition exercise
Write a 24-bar hard-bop/funk piece.
Constraints:
- C7 is the main tonic field
- one two-bar riff
- one bass ostinato
- one IV7 section
- one V7→I7 return
- one chorus with sus tonic color
- one breakdown
- one octave/unison climax
- ending C7→C6/9
- no more than four root changes in the entire piece
The challenge is arrangement, not harmonic quantity.