thanks...I know it is a very "meat and Potatoes" approach but it worked for me. If I would have had anyone just lay that out for me ahead of time, learning would have been much less "painful." I remember, looking back on it, I had a couple of teachers who would withhold info and act like everything was a secret code. lol Maybe they looked upon me as future competition or whatever but it is a whole new world now. The info is out there. it wasn't always like that!! I remember asking one teacher a simple question because I loved the blues..."how do I know what to play during a blues jam when others are soloing?" his answer was something like....."well it depends on what key you're in a how you wanna groove but we'll get to that later"...Could have just taught me the concept of 12 bar blues and the basic 1st position pentatonic scale..lol.....everything was a struggle for me, so I have a lot of compassion for beginners. But, again, it is all there to find today. I had to scratch and claw to learn the basics...now, I'm too set in my ways and lazy to become a real theory master. lol