1. Pentatonic minor box: Every note in the correct, relative pentatonic minor scale will have all the correct notes. No note used in the relative pentatonic minor scale will be wrong notes. Having said that, there are still two notes in the relative Major/minor scale that you could be using. Plus one or two more notes that are not exactly "correct" but can be used to add a bit of flavour/colour. By using the Major or minor scale in some parts of the solo, you keep things interesting. I tend to use a lot of Major scale with a splatter of pentatonic minor.. but how much or how little you use is entirely up to you.


Standard Pentatonic minor Box
|-----|--1--|-----|-----|--2--|
|-----|--4--|-----|-----|--5--|
|-----|--2--|-----|--3--|-----|
|-----|--5--|-----|--1--|-----|
|-----|--3--|-----|--4--|-----|
|-----|--1--|-----|-----|--2--|

Standard Pentatonic minor with a couple extra notes.
|-----|--1--|-----|--*--|--2--|
|-----|--4--|-----|-----|--5--|
|--*--|--2--|-----|--3--|--^--|
|-----|--5--|-----|--1--|-----|
|-----|--3--|--^--|--4--|-----|
|-----|--1--|-----|--*--|--2--|
* = Extra notes that work with basically anything that the pentatonic minor already works with.

^ = Extra colour notes. These notes sound wrong by themselves but if played quickly and followed up by the next note in series, sounds very bluesy.



2. building a theme: right.. a theme is just simply a melody that you base your entire solo around. Other words for theme, in this situation, would be hook or motif. The hook is what hooks the listener.. so you would generally play a little intro then fall back to the melody, then go off in another direction and then come back to the melody again and again. Of course every musical style does it differently but that's what people mean when they say theme. Structure is another one.. basically having a good theme and a good structure generally indicates you had a plan/goal when you began writing the piece of music, and that you, for the most part, stuck to that plan. Having a great structure is nothing without a catchy hook, or conversely, having a great melody means nothing if the overall song has little or no structure. If the most chaotic music has a basic idea of structure and theme.. even if it is intentionally to have no theme or structure.. it's still a plan that needs to be followed through from the design phase.