Hi -

I'm new here just checking out the forums and your post struck a chord with me (sorry for the pun!).

Regarding the first part of your post, I know what you mean. However, the pentatonic and blues scales aren't as limiting and boring as you might think. By listening to different players I've realized how they can do seemingly infinite things with these simple scales. BB King, Eric Clapton, SRV, Jimmy Page - much of what they do is in these scales. I remember figuring out a Steve Vai lick (opening licks to "For the Love of God") and couldn't believe it when I discovered it uses the pentatonic scale shape!

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Joe Bonamassa Live at the Royal Albert Hall. Jamming with some of the tracks on there has given me a lot of new ideas in phrasing using my same lame pentatonic scales.

I'm here to shore up my basic skills (never learned theory) and clean up and expand my technique. This isn't my first attempt. In the past I thought the magic bullet was learning new scales, but I've come to learn that that is only a small part of it - it's more feel, phrasing, and not getting into a rut.

A way to think of it visually would be black and white pictures - photographs, pencil drawings, etc. Some amazing images can be made with just 2 colors - black and white. How much more "boring" can it get than that! :-).

Rich