How to make music or melodic lines? Whn I try to improv it sound like scale drill exercise. At best, I can remember a fitting lick or two to stich together. But I never seem to find notes on the fly that sound great together.

Ok, so I know a few scales and can play em up and down and have done various drills on them to get it into muscle memory. I feel that part is getting there.

When I learn a new song I struggle with improv. If I take the time to learn it note by note I can slowly put it together including solos and fills by watching videos, tutorials and tabs. But I can not do it my way, or make it my own as many says.

Scales are sadly only noodling for me. I mean it is great to learn about intervals and whatever or to know how to play a scale but I can not make music using a scale. It sounds like I am noodling now matter what scale I try.

I spoke with a more experienced guitar picker the other day and he explained it using major scale as an example. When I got back I picked up the guitar and tried it. Not sure if I decoded what he said correctly?

So a chord consist of 1 | 3 | 5.

That makes 2 | 4 | 6 of the scale degree(?) the colorful tones that will ensure it does not sound like an arpeggiated chord or even a scale practice session but more like a melodic line, like you are saying something or singing. According to him those notes (the 2 | 4 | 6's) makes tension that begs for release. I was told to think of them kind of like passing tones that need the release of any one of the chord tones.

As as side note I've kind of seen something similar(?) with the pentatonic minor over a 12 bar blues. If I manage to stay focused rather then stressing out trying to move with the chord changes and loose time or play out of pocket I can target the individual notes of the I | IV | V chords to land a phrase. To my ear it sounds ok if I manage to land (end) a phrase at the down beat on the corresponding note from the scale. I am not fluent and still makes mistakes that sounds awful but I keep drilling. One day.

So back to creating meldoies from the major scales targeting chord tones as the release. Is there any preffered chord tones to use as the release for pharases containing 2 | 4 | 6 mixed in with additional 1 | 3 | 5's? Will a phrase with second last tone on 2 sound better or more correct landing on the 1 | 3 | 5? What about 4 | 6?

I hope this makes sense, I don't yet know much theory nor the musical lingo so I find it hard to express myself and try to explain what I struggle with. If thing is unclear just let me know and I will try to add more info or find a better way to get the point across.

Btw. Trying it out the only musical thing I managed to make was that I suddenly had a line from Brown Eyed Girls going. Not intential. I guess I just stumbled across it using the whole step half step thingy.