This piece somehow ended up as a jazzy swingy thingy, without my actually planning it. (Improv, y'know… or perhaps I can blame Darcy). I started out with a bassline "chop" (a crunchy, percussive bow stroke), which I love to do but haven't previously used in my solo work. Then I realized the poor chop was lonely, holding down the entire rhythmic backline all by itself, so I added drums (courtesy of Logic Pro's awesome drum programming feature -- and yes, once again, the e-drummer is the mysterious Darcy, whose style I prefer to all Logic's other drummers). And then, I just sat down with the resulting drum/chop backline and released the cello. Fortunately, it turns out that my studio has plenty of room to swing a cello!

This turned out to be an 8-count swing, which feels perfectly natural when I'm playing the cello or listening to the piece, but which drives me crazy when I'm trying to actually dance to it. (I learned swing on the East Coast, where 6-count swing is the standard, so 8-count phrasing makes me feel like I'm dancing off phrase 50% of the time). I used to be a serious competitive ballroom dancer, but I haven't danced much in the last 10 years. I really miss it -- even more now, since I've been swing dancing in my studio with the cello as my partner.