Today's topic is about neat and easy ways to customize your tracks by using simple RIFFs.
A RIFF is a simple way to tell the MMA parser that you want a little different SEQUENCE for
a bar. If you look at the sample files in the MMA distribution you'll see lots of examples
which use a RIFF to insert SOLO or MELODY tracks. But, what we're covering today is a little
different.
The other day I was practicing a song and just could not land the first bar correctly
when it was part of a repeat. Too many chords/patterns were sounding the same. The solution?
Simple: just get the drummer to bang the snare a few times on the bar every time we played it.
/// just a snippet ...
Groove ModernJazz
Repeat
Volume m
Begin Drum-emph /// make up a cool name for a new drum track
Tone SnareDrum1 /// set the drum tone to a snare
Riff D13 /// bang the drum on beat 1 and 3
Volume f /// bang it fairly loud
End /// end of the riff.
5 CM7 / FM7
6 Gb Am7 B7b9
/// More chords, etc.
RepeatEnd
That's it.
You could change this to use a SOLO, BASS or CHORD track by using a different track name like
"Chord-emp", etc. And, of course, change the instrument to "Voice Piano1" and the sequence to
"C13".
