Editing Ostinato (section)

===African harmonic progressions===
Popular dance bands in West Africa and the [[Congo (area)|Congo region]] feature ostinato-playing guitars. The African guitar parts are drawn from a variety of sources, including the indigenous [[mbira]], as well as foreign influences such as [[James Brown]]-type [[funk]] riffs. However, the foreign influences are interpreted through a distinctly African ostinato sensibility. African guitar styles began with Congolese bands doing Cuban [[cover song]]s. The Cuban [[guajeo]] had a both familiar and exotic quality to the African musicians. Gradually, various regional guitar styles emerged, as indigenous influences became increasingly dominant within these ''Africanized guajeos''.<ref>Roberts, John Storm. ''Afro-Cuban Comes Home: The Birth of Congo Music''. Original Music cassette tape (1986).</ref>

As Moore states, "One could say that I&nbsp;– IV&nbsp;– V&nbsp;– IV [chord progressions] is to African music what the 12-bar blues is to North American music."<ref>Moore, Kevin (2011). ''Ritmo Oriental's First Album of the 70s''. Web. ''Timba.com''. http://www.timba.com/artist_pages/1974-first-lp-of-the-70s</ref> Such progressions seem superficially to follow the conventions of Western music theory. However, performers of African popular music do not perceive these progressions in the same way. Harmonic progressions which move from the tonic to the subdominant (as they are known in European music) have been used in [[Traditional sub-Saharan African harmony]] for hundreds of years. Their elaborations follow all the conventions of traditional African harmonic principles. Gehard Kubik concludes:

<blockquote>The harmonic cycle of C–F–G–F [I–IV–V–IV] prominent in Congo/Zaire popular music simply cannot be defined as a progression from tonic to subdominant to dominant and back to subdominant (on which it ends) because in the performer's appreciation they are of equal status, and not in any hierarchical order as in Western music—(Kubik 1999).<ref>Kubik, Gerhard (1999). ''Africa and the Blues''. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.</ref></blockquote>