Originally Posted by: SRVFan2000

Honestly, I am not sure but I would just try it- and see how it goes. Many of the best players develop their feel by ear- not theory so I would not over think it. If it sounds right- go with it- if it doesn't, go with it anyway! There are no rules in Rock n Roll. My initial thoughts are that the blues note is relative to the scale so if you are playing the mPenta scale (5 shapes and 5 notes in each shape), it might still work. Also, keep in mind that the minor penta is not so much a shape unless you think of it as such. How you think of it could potentially help or hurt your playing. The notes are all over the fretboard. Just like chords alone do not so much define the key. There are many factors to consider. I also do lessons with a Berklee instructor online and he hates shapes. He is all about ear training. I find shapes much easier but everyone is different. I can confidently say that learning all the notes on the fretboard and how to instantly find the root note in all locations really helps a lot as well.

Thanks SRVfan. I'm an empiricist at heart and, as per your suggestion, I tried that. In fact, it doesn't sound half bad to my ear. However, my experiment was somewhat imperfect as, without a looper, I'm basically doing kind of a call-and-response thing where I play a chord on for the first beat of the measure, and then, for the remainder, do a little minor pentatonic run. So I'm not really hearing the note-in-question right up against the chord tones but rather, in proximity to them.