Solo improvisation with what we know!

Ok.  Improvising becomes "not-improvising" when we are taken out of the scheme we know and we have to deal with unfamiliar territory.  Not to say that it can't be done, but there is a flow of creativity once we are more familiar with the way our fingers will move throughout the fretboard.

Here is a pretty slick idea to get you out of a tough spot and into improvising with what you know already.

If you play any kind of modern music, then maybe you are familiar with the pentatonic scale.  You know?  The one that sounds like the blues scale but without that half step before the 5th?  Anyway, look it up if you have to.  Without getting sensitive about what some call pentatonic here is the formula:

1 -- b3 -- 4 -- 5 -- b7 -- 1  So, there is the scale...

The fingering is, starting with the 6th string and with the 1st finger as follows (2 octaves worth):
1 - 4
1-2
1-2
1-2
1 - 4
1 - 4

Now here is the trick!  Whenever playing in a major key, use this pattern to play over any of the chords in the progression.  Here is an example:

These are the 3 minor chords found in the key of C major:  Am, Dm, Em

And, although you can just play the Am pentatonic scale pattern (relative minor scale to C major) over any of the chords that belong to the key of C major, you can also impose the minor pentatonic pattern of any of the other 2 minor chords left (Dm & Em) on any of the chords that come up.  This is true as long as you are staying in the parent key, which in our example was C major.