Thanks for sharing your experiences, PoppaGator--I went through the same experience with attack--it took me a while to discover that about half the time I wasn't getting enough out of the strings, and the other half of the time, I was putting too much in for what I was getting-

Also agree with you wholeheartedly on the four-beat figure experience--you can't really just wind up and go in this style of playing--every time the melody voice moves out of range, you've got to figure out how re-position your hand to keep the voicing consistant--most important, you've got to get the segue from one position to the other down so that it doesn't sound like you are just stumbling through the tune--