Hi Dee, I'm another non-scale player. I find (or found) the pentatonic claustrophobically restricting, myself ... there are 12 notes to play with, not 5. Have a listen to the
Red Start Blues I just loaded up the other day. That was played by following the chords: G7, C7 and D7. I used the tones from each of those chords (one at a time) as my main melody notes. After doing for a long time you get to how to decorate them and how to run between them chromatically ... how to approach the 3 in each chord from the semitone below (the flat 3) and a few other little tricks of the trade, but it all hinges off those chord tones.
That's the other way of approaching ... not that the pentatonic or blues scales are wrong ... just another way of doing it. It's also a little easier as you're letting the 'box' do all the choosing of those 5 notes for you.
I watched Eric Clapton and Cream the other night ... he's strictly a pentatonic player. I fell asleep! All I heard were the same runs everyone else plays ... over and over and over. Not once did I hear any real melody.