Some handy basics to make life easier;

Example 1.
Key Amin or C
All notes and chords sound perfectly together in any order
notes A B C D E F G, on these chords Amin, B dim., C, Dmin, Emin, F, G.
Amin pentatonic notes A C D E G (blues rock scale)

Example 2
Key A or F#min
All notes and chords sound perfectly together in any order
notes A B C# D E F# G# on these chords in any order A, Bmin, C#min, D, E, F#min, G#dim
A maj/pentatonic notes F#, A, B, C#, E. (blues rock, country scale)

Example 3
Some other possibility’s in rock/blues/country
Key A
Amin pentatonic notes A C D E G (blues rock scale)
A maj/pentatonic notes F#, A, B, C#, E. (blues rock, country)

Now try to add and practice the following notes but play/sing them short over these 3 example chords A, D, E (blues/rock feel)
D# (that’s a nice but mean blue one!)
A, (B), C, C#, D, E, F#, G, A + add the blue note (D#) but play it short cause this one bites.
Guitar players start on the fifth fret on the low E string.

Of course you can mix both scales Amin pentatonic & A maj/pentatonic and start writing a zillion songs.
Cas

Here’s a little twist to Pete’s exercise…

Take out the third from each of those three chords A,D,E and you get the 3 basic chords (power chords) of a Blues progression. Just use those 3 chords in a typical 12 bar blues progression and then take 2 simple phrases like:

“I woke up this morning” (pause in between to breath) “and had a nice surprise”

Select only one note from the A minor pentatonic scale (a,c,d,e,g) and sing that single note along with the phrases above. Experiment with different rhythms and feel how the contours of the same note change over the different chords. Some notes work better than others but if you phrase it out right, you have some instant blues melodies.

Try it out, should be lots of fun for some basic constructs. Cheers – Clemens