CW90

I was playing “Stella by Starlight” on guitar a couple nights ago and I improvised a cadence that stood out to me.

(I was playing solo guitar so all aspects of the music, melody and accompaniment, were created continuously, whole cloth. There’s the feeling of juggling, of sketching the outline of something to evoke its presence—it’s quite pleasant, in part because it is difficult enough to be deeply absorbing. All this to say, though I played this cadence over bars 30 and 31 of “Stella by Starlight” (a 32-bar tune I was playing in the key of Bb), I wasn’t really playing “over” anything. The question is, moment to moment, How is this song being realized? You are the rider, you are the bicycle, and you show what route you’re looping, with its characteristic landmarks and obstacles—visible (at first) to only you—by the shape your ride describes.)