Well, that is just so cool, and you summed it up @Tyberius that's what makes each performance unique -- thank you both - I'm just reviewing a Lynyrd Skynyrd track on you tube - Free Bird - that (as is Sweet Home Alabama where he don't like to speak about Neil Young, apparently - although NY is one of my greatest )  ( !!!! ) - but it is all about taking the tempo to "what the music wants to do", rather than the other way around - and- I know - and it is MY problem - I'm a rock child ( ok, an old rock man ) - but as far as I'm concerned, ANYTHING GOES so long as folks enjoy it.   That's it for me, don't need anything more.

Glad my attempts (which will get better) pleased you !  Good to know !

Schaick said

Yep!  I think that might be why I gravitated to bluegrass over classical.  My end goal is the ability to improvise at Jam during a piece that I have never heard before!!

  I'm like that as well - but I do believe that it (for me) may be a bit of a "round-about"

  I absolutely LOVE picking up someone's performance and "playing along" / "improvising" to it.....    I do think that can be a really important part of learning music in general (just figuring out that you can play "something on top of, but which is different, from the piece you're listening to and have it harmonize nicely").

  But at the same time, I do have this ambition to be able to play in a "tightly controlled" environment ( which the @Fiddlerman group projects bring to us ) where all of the same parts have to be pretty much in tune, in time, in rhythm and so on - hard taskmaster is Pierre!  LOL kidding !

  And as far as my Swallowtail submission goes - LOL - well I have absolutely no excuse - I just got carried away....   and I don't care !!!! (well I mean I don't care too much about trying a "variation", but of course I do care, I care a lot, about what I actually do, and do the best I can)