[bmurnahan]

I agree with Kirk. Scales have their place in music and are a great aid in helping you improve your technique when practiced in various ways(breaking them up into intervals, etc). They also give you options on which notes to use as passing tones in between the scale notes.

But as Kirk states, all great jazz players are masters at following the chords. You also have to remember that it takes time. It doesn't happen overnight. In fact, over time great players play what they want to hear and don't think in terms of chords or scales.

They have spent many hours developing their ears to get to this point. And as Kirk likes to say,"melody loves chord tones," so the most melodic improvisers have their ears highly tuned into the chord tones.

Check out Joe Pass. Even when he plays solo you can hear the chords going by in his single note lines.

Get yourself a little fretboard road map. Pick a five fret area and locate the chord tones for each chord in the song. Improvise using only those notes on the matching chord. When you can do that reasonably well move to another five fret area and do it again.

Good Luck,

Bob