A little more on why Nashville numbers....

[scotch]

I use Nashville Numbers every day! Of course I'm in Nashville! ;-)

It's a very useful system if you play songs with other people. Once you get decent at it, have a little ear training, and are playing with musicians that also read Numbers - you can literally listen to a song through once or twice and have a chart done that everybody can realistically play the song decently in ANY key!

Guys who can hear chord changes well can put out accurate charts in one listen (as long as wre not talking crazy fusion music). Nashville Numbers have saved my butt hundreds of times "learning" a song 5 minutes before downbeat. Not only can I use my chart, but everyone else in the band can copy it & know whats up.

I'd like to see Nashville Numbers grow beyond Nashville!

 

[bigboy_78]

I can of get that but you still miss a lot of basic information that turn this system useless outside of rock/pop/country type of music.

....which is its predominant use. That's like saying motor cars are great, but they lack the ability to drive underwater, which makes them useless for me as a submariner.

 

[Matt O]

In my limited knowledge of the system, I think it very useful for what it is intended to do.

Take the opry for example. A singer only has to play their song once on guitar to a nns transcriber backstage. In a matter of minutes, they could walk on stage and the opry band could back them up. They just have to count the drummer in and play.

What is there to hate about that?

Malcolm's OP makes me want to learn the system, even though I may never be in the position to need it. It just seems like another cool thing to learn.

Thanks for posting about it @MalcolmAmos !

 

[MalcolmAmos]

.....Malcolm's OP (Why Nashville Numbers) makes me want to learn the system, even though I may never be in the position to need it. It just seems like another cool thing to learn.

Thanks for posting about it @MalcolmAmos !

Your welcome. Yes it is a tool that can be used, perhaps not for everything, however, for the music I play it just seems to fit.

 

[CharlyG]

I still maintain that songs sound different in different keys, and if wasn't for those "lazy" singers........

 

[RoadRanger]

I still maintain that songs sound different in different keys,

Sho' 'nuff - songs sound like arse if sung in keys the singer can't do .

 

[mambo4]

. Here's a sample chart/play-along from Chas's book. It includes a signature riff, along with rhythmic notation, and a non-diatonic chord:

There's plenty of room there for some bar lines. At that point, the notation is so complex I feel like the absence of bar lines is an oversight.

Also, what is the bar
41/3 2-71
supposed to indicate?
are all those numbers really supposed to be chords?

 

[INTP]

There's plenty of room there for some bar lines. At that point, the notation is so complex I feel like the absence of bar lines is an oversight.

Also, what is the bar
41/3 2-71
supposed to indicate?
are all those numbers really supposed to be chords?

It indicates measures, but without the bar lines as are used in standard notation. I understand that readers of SN would find it more familiar to have bar lines, but if you think about it a bit, I'm sure you can also imagine how bar lines would be problematic in NN.

BTW, Shenpa.

 

[mambo4]

I understand the underline = 1 bar

but what the heck does
41/3 2-71
mean?

EDIT:
google is my friend). Fractions indicate inversions, superscript numbers are extensions.
41/3 = IV chord in 1st inversion ( i.e, 3rd on the bottom)
2-7 = II min 7
1 = I

 

[Pacman]

I understand the underline = 1 bar

but what the heck does
41/3 2-71
mean?

EDIT:
google is my friend). Fractions indicate inversions, superscript numbers are extensions.
41/3 = IV chord in 1st inversion ( i.e, 3rd on the bottom)
2-7 = II min 7
1 = I

In that example, it's actually 1 beat per chord, so in C it would indicate F C/E Dm7 C.

 

[mambo4]

I get it. So Nashville fractions = chord scaletone / bottom scaletone
In key of C:
1/3 = C/E
2/5 = Dmin/G
5/7 = G7/B
etc...

 

[Clef_de_fa]

I just watched this :



And I get it now but I not very satisfying for me as I keep see roman number like it is taught in classical world. I also hated how you write a chord inversion.

 

[INTP]

I just watched this :



And I get it now but I not very satisfying for me as I keep see roman number like it is taught in classical world. I also hated how you write a chord inversion.

I guess it depends a lot on what you're used to. I find the classical chord inversion (figured bass) notation to be less intuitive than NN.

 

[Schmooniverse]

Your welcome. Yes it is a tool that can be used, perhaps not for everything, however, for the music I play it just seems to fit.

Hi Malcolm,
Thanks for starting a whole new thread just to answer my question! I've learned a lot from reading this thread and I'm sure others have too. It seems that thinking in numbers can be pretty useful but maybe more appropriate for some genres of music than others. I had no idea there was a whole system based on scale degrees but not using Roman numerals - fascinating! Your "skip a note" system also sounds like a great way to think about walking bass lines, rather than changing position for each chord as I was doing. That is - if I've understood it correctly. Thanks again for such a comprehensive and helpful answer!