This is great stuff guys! Nice to know you're not the only one who runs into this sort of thing. I'm with you on the practice thing, though I still think there's this psychlogical hurdle when you've got an audience. I kind of like the idea of pretending they're not listening; I wonder if you can kind of turn that on and off during a performance...

Sometimes I think part of the problem is the competitive mood that seems to linger in music that keeps so many of us hiding for so long. When we know somebody present is far better than us, I think many of us just feel like not playing at all, which of course is ridiculous, but there it is. It almost seems like a soloist needs to train the mind to think a certain way, like some kind of Zen thing, to be able to strech out and play.

Just an observation; as I listen to many of my records, and particularly live recordings, one thing I notice is that, when improvising a break, many of the pros (say, Clapton for example) take the first time around quite simply, and build from there. Kind of like wading into the pool rather than diving into the deep end. As my musical interests extend more these days into bluegrass, I'm wondering if the same idea applies, as I'm not as familiar with bg. sb