Q: I'm practicing the idea of playing outside lines but I'm not too certain about a few things. Such as, what the approach should be focused upon. I'm not sure if the approach should be chromatic, or if I should try and target specific 5th's or 9th's that make up the altered tones on the chords. I really enjoy the sounds of John McLaughlin and Miles Davis and I hope that I can eventually create lines like that. Any help would be greatly appreciated.- Avner, Manchester, UK.A: Playing outside can definitely be accomplished through careful work with the chromatic scale, or you could approach it in a more sophisticated way by using different minor or major passing tones, as well as, altered tones. It all takes time to inject this into your playing so my suggestion is to work on one idea per week, creating lines with each idea while working on one jam track so you can notice how you either like or dislike various sounds. We'll begin with a Minor Jazz Blues and go through a few ideas that you can start working with to get you started with playing outside.