How do I make scales sound more melodic instead of just scales?

[mister natural]

Another thought is to take the melody that the singer sings and modify it - both in time, notes and phrasing. A little goes a long way

[kunos]

I always try to do this as a sort of "exercise" for melodic solo. Just take a song you know pretty well.. I find female voice songs work best for this because they tend to use a range closer to the one we have on the guitar.

Without studying the song just try to follow the vocal line. Never repeat a part or a song, if you hit the wrong note nevermind and keep playing.

With time the exercise will improve your "head-hand" connection, i want to play THIS and bam the hands hopefully plays that.

So, hopefully, once you are improvising, as long you have a melody in your head you can play it.

[Jersey Jack]

Good advice here--I recently started a thread on a similar topic, and I'm in the same position as the OP. What hasn't been mentioned here (I think) is the role of licks. People will often talk of licks as the language of guitar improvisation. Licks are like words, and they are built from scales the way that words are built from an alphabet. One can't communicate by throwing letters around, of course; you need to use words that people understand as words. To my mind, the most effective solos are built with licks rather than scales--though of course scales provide the foundation.

 

I find it useful to begin with some licks I've worked on, trying to fit a few of them into the solo. This does not feel like a limitation on my creativity, as I always modify the lick according to the particular context of the song. But a lick gives me a way to break out of the scale boxes.