How to build a solo 101

If you can get past Miles's outfit and Kenny's hat and just close your eyes and listen, you'll get more out of this video. It's an interesting lesson in playing over a funk-esque vamp, without many chord changes. Listen to all the "tension" notes Kenny Garrett applies, and the way he keeps things fresh with different rhythmic motives.

Here is a practice idea for you, crank up some hip-hop (rap works best) on your radio (97.1 FM) and practice a new scale over what you hear. Try a concert C harmonic minor scale. Some notes will work, some won't, but you'll get a better understanding of the tension of the notes you're playing against a static background. It's fun to experiment, and challenging to stay interesting. By the way, I think Kenny's mic wasn't sounding right, so he played into Miles's to be heard the way he wanted.