From aschwartz@baaqmd.gov Tue Apr 28 11:29:52 2009
Subject:Re: I'm outta here

Ken, I don't tune in to this group as much as I used to, but man, I'd be sorry to see you go. A group like this needs more nice people and more Canadians!

On the subject of walking bass lines, I agree completely with that fellow's Zen-based explanation. Whenever you have trouble doing 2 things at once, you just need to practice one of them alone until it becomes a subconcious activity. Then, and only then, start adding the other. I'm not the greatest at soloing over a walking bass, but I've made alot of progress on it and I find that when I'm at my best the concious part of my mind is not focused on the bass at all. The left hand develops a hardwired repotoire of moves -- different ways of getting from gm dim to f#maj, etc. . . It then requires a very minimal part of your focus to choose amongst those, and once you do, the fingers just execute. So the left hand isn't being very creative. Being truly creative with both hands simultaneously is still beyond me, but that's virtuoso territory, you can be a pretty decent player even without that.

Adan