Slickerbill, I like your point about "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." I was jamming with my brother-in-law (one of those annoying people who can pick up almost any instrument, play it by ear, and sound good) and an old friend who's been a pro musician for 35+ years. Between us we had 2 guitars, an acoustic bass, a sax, a piano, a mandolin, and my harmonicas. We got to a song where the sax (brother-in-law) wasn't going to fit in, so they both grabbed guitars, and I picked up the bass. Confession time. The last time I tried to play bass was 24 years ago, I sucked, and I haven't touched one since. But I wanted to try to keep up. I hate just sitting there. All I played were simple riffs on the pentatonic scale, and just tried to keep the beat. Baby stuff. When we were done, they both looked at me and said, "Smoking! We didn't know you could play the bass!" The KISS method at work; Keep It Simple, Stupid, and pass me a beer.

Who knew it was that easy?!? *big grin*

Peace, Blues