Marion, Okay, I see where you want to go. (Boy, it's hard to disavow stuff around here. <g>) You're right in thinking that scales will be helpful but you need to practice scales in different intervals as well. Practice bacic two-octave diatonic scales in both major and minor keys and throw in some pentatonic scales for good measure. When those feel comfortable—long past being boring—begin to practice scales in different intervals (i.e., seconds, thirds, etc.). Work them up and down as you go (e.g., C D E D E F E F G F G A G A B A B C D C B C C B A B A G A G F G F E F E D E D C B C but played over two ocatves). The idea is to build an automatic muscular association with the intervals so you don't need to think about where the next note is going to be when you play from your head. When you start to feel comfortable, start playing along with records. Don't play a track over and over until you learn it, just let the player continue at it's own pace. Concentrate on learning enough about each track as it comes along so you can offer something in the right key and progression before the track ends. Don't worry too much about how you sound, just think about getting a few melody or harmony notes placed in the right places. Needless to say, you won't be reading from a chart.

I can't remember the name of the Ivan Galamian exercise book but I'll try to remember to look it up for you at home. I did a WebFerret search for Galamian and the first hit it returned was StringImprov, a site for string players who want to improvise jazz. I know that's not what you're after but it looks like a great site so I mention it here.

      - Mark