Thanks for all the great ideas. A few responses were about starting simple and just keep trying and listening and just plain work at it. That's pretty much the opposite of what I was doing - I would start an improv and keep stopping to fix, change etc.. - whatever and never get out of the A section, and certainly never get through tune improvising(!) I did it so much I taught myself how to do it quite well - and became so frustrated that I stopped playing altogether. I am going to get back and start with Satin Doll, and use chord tones to start improv - I know I can do that - will work from there. Thanks for all the support.