So I didn't say anything about it for whatever reason? But, with all this talk I do about Power of the Mind and Mind over Matter principles, I decided to apply them to a new goal......learning left hand walking bass on the piano. My God...what a challenge! First 2-3 months and I still can't do it. But I'm determined...I wasn't going to give up. Finally the "mind" kicked in and it was slowly becoming easier...VERY slowly. Six months later, I can now "walk the bass" to maybe 50% of my tunes. A huge accomplishment for me, after six months of dedicated daily practice.

I'm not sure if one can play walking bass while they're improvising but I don't think I'm going to go for it. I wouldn't learn to do it in this lifetime. I'll be happy, probably sometime in the next six months, when I can "walk" all of my songs.

One tip I really want to share that helped me the most. I mentioned this before...I'll say it again. Sit down at your instrument and set an alarm for 15-20 minutes. And then STOP...no matter how good your practicing is going. Wait a period and go back to it again. Instead of two straight hours that start to get unproductive, you have multi mini-sessions. That's how the mind works (on everything, not just music). Instead of 7 daily sessions in a week, your mind reacts now to 30+ mini-sessions. That's a lot of practice.

But that helped me the most so I definitely wanted to mention it. Meantime I'm still working regularly every day on my left hand. I'm not going to give up until I've mastered "walking the bass!"

Mark