What leeneia is suggesting is that you use the pentatonic scale, which is based on 5 notes in the scale and not the more usual 8 notes. The nice thing about pentatonic scales is that every note harmonises with every other note in the scale which makes improvising and chord playing easy. But, there are huge numbers of tunes built around this scale.

There have been a number of Mudcat threads about tunes written in this scale.

You don't need a piano to do it. For example, in the Key of C major, the 5 pentatonic notes are: C, D, E, G, A. The notes in the key of Am pentatonic are: A,C,D,E,G. The notes are the same but the starting note (the tonic) is C in the C major scale and A in the A minor scale. (A minor being the relative minor scale to C.) You can transpose these major and minor scales to any other key.

I just did a Google search and this is one of many sites which showed up. That site refers to the Blues Pentatonic scale as well. http://www.zartmo.com/guitarlibrary/am_pentscale42.html

Another -related - idea is to try composing tunes in different modes. There have also been a few Mudcat discussions on modes/modal music.

Try doing a Forum search from the main Mudcat Forum page for each of the following terms: pentatonic, modes, modal

Helen