..exactly ed ,no arguments from me !!! the hardest part of playing is telling the story.my point again is that you might have great stories going on in you head but it sure does help to have the means of telling it accurately .technique is nothing without ideas and vice versa .there are no excuses for poor technique though,yet we cant all have the creativity of parker,montgomery and the likes.jello,being able to execute fast lines doesnt make anyone a better player,it only means youve got your chops together,playing other peoples lines also doesnt impress me though it maybe shows a degree of application...in fact making a ballad sing ...no thats where im coming from.technique is personal....you need as much and as little as the ideas you want to express...if you want to slap ,slap...if it doesnt ring ya ding then dont...if you want to play fast lines everyone has to spend time in the "shed".