Song Writing

Pick a key: G

Key of G has one sharp and not too many bar chords.


1. Notes in the key of G

g - a - b - c - d - e - f#   



2. There are (W)hole and (H)alf STEPS between each note.

G  -  A  -  B  -  C  -  D  -  E  -  F# 

     W    W    H     W     W    H    


3.  Each note (chord) assigned a NUMBER

G-A-B-C- D- E- F#
1- 2- 3- 4- 5 - 6 - 7



4.   There are 7 possible chords you can use in the key of G:

The 1, 4 and 5 chords are Major
The 2, 3 and 6 chords are Minor
The 7th chord is diminished (not used much)

The chords I can use then are:

1-G     2-Am   3-Bm    4-C   5-D    6-Em


5. Verse - play a 1-6-2-5 progression


G - Em - Am - D


6. Chorus - play a 1-2-4-5 progression 


G - Am - C - D


7.  For the melody, start on one of 4 notes from the G chord:

B, D, G or B

   +-----+-----+--G-+
B+-----+-----+-----+
G+-----+-----+-----+
D+-----+-----+-----+
   +-----+--B-+-----+
   +-----+-----+--G-+

Finally, use other notes out of the key to fill in the rest of the melody.


8. Write down major scale in G

e +-----+--f#-+---g-+-----+---a-+-----+---b-+---c-+-----+
b +---c-+-----+---d-+-----+---e-+-----+--f#-+---g-+-----+
g +-----+---a-+-----+---b-+---c+------+---d+------+---e-+
d +-----+---e-+-----+--f#-+---g-+-----+---a-+------+--b-+
a +-----+---b-+---c-+-----+---d-+-----+---e-+-----+--f#-+
e +-----+--f#-+---g-+-----+---a-+-----+---b-+---c-+-----+
       1                   3               5                 7                9

or numerically...

e +-----+---7-+---G-+-----+-----+
b +-----+-----+---5-+------+---6-+
g +-----+---2-+-----+---3-+---4-+
d +-----+---6-+-----+--7--+---G-+
a +-----+---3-+---4-+-----+---5-+
e +-----+-----+---G-+-----+---2-+                  


9. An alternate form is playing the relative minor pentatonic scale.  To find the relative
minor to G:  find 6th note of the G scale,  g-a-b-c-d-Em-f

Notes are e-g-a-b-d   (1-3-4-5-7)   

Em Pentatonic

e +-----+-----+---g-+-----+---a-+
b +-----+-----+---d-+-----+-----+
g +-----+---a-+-----+---b-+-----+
d +-----+---e+-----+------+-----+
a +-----+---b-+-----+-----+-----+
e +-----+-----+---g-+-----+---a-+

Bass Page

P-Bass Pickups

Grounding

A very important note here is to ground the bridge. If the bridge is not grounded your bass will almost always hum when you are not touching the strings. If you still have hum problems you should also have or install brass plates under the pickups, and have them connected to the common ground, usually on the back side of the volume and tone pots. Make sure that these plates do not short out the pickups. You can insulate these plates with electrical tape or some other insulator.

Split Coil

P-Bass pickups are split coil type of pickup. The two coils are wired in series, in most cases. However, you can wire them in parallel too, which will make the sound brighter, with less bass. The recommended wiring practice is to wire them in series so that the coils are out-of-phase with each other. This practice causes the pickup to become a hum-bucking (hum-canceling) pickup coil. The advantage in this practice, is to make it immune to outside electrical noise, which is a great plus for any bass. Of course, you can change the pickup wiring to single coil with these, by switching the wiring on one of the coils. Usually, the coils come with color coded wire connected to the coil terminals. Some coils use Red and Black, while others use White and Black.

Electrical

Below is a diagram showing how a standard P-Bass split coil pickup is wired as hum-canceling pickup. The pickups are wired in series.

 

Notice that the split coils are actually out of phase here. It does not matter in this case that the coils are out-of-phase, since there are no other pickups here. If the coils are wired in-phase, then it becomes a single coil type of wiring, and you can expect to hear hum when your are near electrical fields. The Precision Bass pickup is what is called a split coil type. The purpose here is to reduce external noise (i.e. hum from stage lights, radio stations, lightning, etc.) to the sensor and only produce the sound of the strings.


Wiring Help for P-Bass Pickups

 

Important to note the ground wire soldered from the bridge to the volume pot - this needs to be checked.  Other common issue is the wires to the output jack.  Bass players are constantly tightening this as it becomes loose during playing.  The wire sometimes comes loose.