Thanks everyone for your thoughts.
To clarify, when I wrote of using scales, I didn't mean going 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1, but rather noodling around in that scale, without particularly paying attention to the chords.
It seems that following melody and adding chord tones around it is the consensus method.
p.s. I have
PT and it was definetly worth it.