If you are an experienced musician, you probably are already familiar with the Nashville Number System or have at least heard of it. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it is definitely a useful system to know.

The Nashville Number System (also just called the number system) is a way of writing the chords to a song in a 'universal' or neutral key using numbers instead of chord names. This way the song can be played in any key at any time with out rewriting it.

How It Works

The poor bastard was an egghead who knew a lot about music but never took the time to learn the down-and-dirty stuff that working musicians use every day: the Nashville Number System. Literally, everybody working a decent gig in Nashville reads number charts—including every good engineer and drummer, even though they're not playing notes, per se. Apr 11, 2020 The Nashville number system is a shorthand way to write charts for songs. Everyone in this town uses it. Once you know it and become adept at hearing intervals you can chart songs while listening to them on an airplane with no instrument in sight.

We start by taking the key the song is in and writing the scale. For example if we are in the key of D, we write a D scale.

DEF♯GABC♯D

Feed and grow fish free download mac. We then assign numbers to each of these notes.

Nashville Number System Chart

Nashville Number System for the key of C and G As you can see, the numbers are always the same, while the key can change. If we say: a 1-4-5 song in the key of C, that's means C, F and G. A 1-4-5 song in the key of G, is G, C and D.

12345671DEF♯GABC♯D

Now each of these numbers becomes a chord.

1 is a D chord.
4 is a G chord.
♭7 is a C chord.
3m is an F♯ minor chord.
etc.

Safari 9 download for mac. These chords are then used in songs.

This is just a very brief look at the system. For a better understanding you should check out The Nashville Number System Ebook.

So why is this useful?

Printable Nashville Number System Chart

Now you're probably asking, 'Why would I take the time to do this?' The answer is simple: because everybody in the music industry uses the Nashville Number System. You know, 'when in Rome'? In fact, most Pros and good amateurs will usually assume you already know how to use it.

But WHY does everyone use it? When you write out a song in numeric notation like this, the numbers can be applied to any key. So this example can now be translated to C instantly:

1 = C
♭7 = B♭
4 = F
1 = C
2 = D
5 = G
1 = C
1 = C

But what if you're in the studio and the lead singer says 'It's a little too low, let's go to D.' Easy. Use the formula:

D C G D E A D D

'Still too low. E♭?' Not a problem.

E♭ D♭ A♭ E♭ F B♭ E♭ E♭

Obviously you wouldn't be rewriting this every time. The more you use this and the more familiar you are with your scales, the less you have to think about it. '1 4 5 in D? Easy, that's D G & A.'

Now SOMEONE out there is asking 'Couldn't I just transpose it from key to key without this?' Yes. Technically you could transpose it from A to E♭. 'So you'd measure the distance from A to E♭, which is 6 half steps. So then your next chord is G, so six half steps from G is.. oh yeah D♭. So now, six half steps from D is.. uhh A♭. And then six half steps from A again is uh.' ZZZZzzzzz.. ZZZZZzzzzz..

Or you could just start on E♭ and use the same numbers you already had. See why we use it now?

If this still seems a little hard at first, just trust me. When you learn your scales and numbers, it is a bazillion times easier than the other way. And THAT is why everyone uses the Nashville Number System.

Again, this is just a very brief look at it. Click here to learn more about it.

Download the Music Theory Chart that goes with this lesson. It’s a printable PDF with the chromatic scale wheel, a scale interval list, all the CAGED Chords, and the notes of the guitar neck in standard tuning.

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The Nashville Number System

Ok, I first have to thank you for suffering through the last post. Those basic pieces of information are extremely important for growing as a guitarist. Now let’s get down and dirty with applying it. First, let’s look again at the C major scale.

Nashville Number System Chart Maker

You’ll remember that there are seven notes in the scale, so we’re going to show all the notes below and number them 1-7, starting with C (C is equal to 1, D is equal to 2, etc.):

Pay careful attention to the numbers above each note, because they’re very important. Those numbers show the relationship of notes (and also chords) to one another. Working with the notes, there are a couple that have special importance. Obviously, 1 or C is important… in music terms, it’s called the “tonic.” Also, 5 or G is big, and it is called the “dominant.” note or chord. 4 or F has the name of “subdominant”, and 6 minor or A minor is called the “relative minor.” Some songs also include the 2 minor chord, (D minor) too. These five chords are very important in worship music, I’d go as far as saying that 80 percent of all worship songs contain only these chords or some variation of them. Now why are we mentioning the numbers 1,2,4,5 and 6, instead of just the chord names? The reason is the numbers show us the relationship between the notes and chords that are important to us. These numbers (and ultimately the relationship they show) have a name in music circles. They’re called the Nashville Number System. Confused? Well, it’s real easy.

Imagine having a chord chart in front of you of a song in the key of C… it repeats the chords C, Am, G, and F over and over. (ex. the verses to Katheryn Scott’s song “Hungry” follow this progression) Now say your worship leader comes to you and says he or she would rather do the song in the key of D. If you didn’t know the relationship between the chords, you might be lost. But being the observant guitar player you are, you know that there is a relationship between the chords that stays the same, no matter what key you play in. So you put on a Sherlock Holmes hat, and go back to the C major chart above to determine which numbers match the chords. Thus:

C=1
Am=6m
G=5
F=4

The relationship of the chords in the song is 1 – 6m – 5 – 4 repeated over and over. Now we have to determine how to change or in musical terms “transpose” the song into the key of D. If you remember in part one, we found the relationship between notes on the major scale to be

2 – 2 – 1 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 1

So let’s go back to the Chromatic Scale chart, and apply these starting with D.

Since our chord progression goes 1 – 6m – 5 – 4, then we know the new chords for playing the song will be:

D – Bm – A – G

Download rsa token for mac. So what’s this whole Nashville Number System? Well, it’s pretty simple… it’s the relationship that the numbers have with playing a song in different keys. No matter what key you play a song in, the relationship is always the same, so the Nashville Number System gives us a way to communicate that relationship no matter what key we’re playing in.

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CAGED Chords

Now that we’ve done all the hard thinking, I’ll make things real easy for you. Below is a chart of the five important Nashville Number chords, and their corresponding chords in the keys of C, A, G, E, and D… something otherwise known as the CAGED principle for guitarists.

Why CAGED?: The reason the chords in the keys of C, A, G, E, and D are so important is that they’re the major open root position keys available for guitarists. By knowing all these chords, you can play a song in any key, just by capoing. For example, say a song is in A# (B flat) you could capo on the first fret, and play the A position chords, or capo on the third fret and play G position chord