The Nashville Number System and Chord Charts

Lesson 4 gave the chords of a key numbers: I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi. Session musicians in Nashville took that idea, dropped the Roman numerals for plain Arabic ones, and built a chart system so practical that it runs most country recording sessions to this day. You can learn the core of it in an afternoon.

The system came out of the late 1950s. Neal Matthews Jr., who arranged the vocals for the Jordanaires, used numbers to write harmony parts. In the early 1960s, harmonica and session player Charlie McCoy adapted it for the band. The point was speed. A singer walks in and says "let's try it a step higher," and nobody has to rewrite a single chart.

Numbers instead of letters

Each chord gets the number of the scale note it is built on. In the key of G:

A song written 1 4 5 1 is G C D G in G, and D G A D in D. Same chart, same song, new key. That is the whole trick.

The marks you need

Nashville charts are not perfectly standard. Every studio and every player has small habits. But these marks are common enough that any working player will read them:

• A plain number is a major chord, one bar long. Four beats in 4/4.
• A dash or m after the number means minor: 6- or 6m.
• A 7 after the number, often small and raised, means a dominant seventh: 57. Write "5maj7" for a major seventh.
• A flat or sharp before the number lowers or raises the root a half step. In C, b7 is a Bb chord. You will see b7 a lot in rock-flavored country and in Appalachian modal tunes.
• A slash means a different bass note, written as numbers. 1/3 in G is G with a B in the bass, a G/B chord. Bass players love these for walking lines.
• Underlined chords together share one bar. 1 4 underlined means two beats of 1 and two beats of 4. Some writers use parentheses instead, or a slash between them, which can be confused with a slash chord. Underlining is clearest.
• A diamond drawn around a number means hit the chord once and let it ring.
• A caret (^) in front of a chord marks a push: play it a little early, on the "and" before the beat. Some writers use an arrow or a tied eighth note instead.

Section labels go on the left: Intro, V1 (verse 1), Ch (chorus), Br (bridge), Tag, Out. Each line usually holds four bars, because most country phrases are four bars long. That makes the page look like the song sounds.

KEY: G      104 BPM     4/4

Intro   1    4    1    5

V1      1    1    4    1
        1    1    5    5
        1    1    4    1
        [4 5]  1  1    1

Ch      4    4    1    1
        4    4    5    5
        4    4    1    6-
        [4 5]  1  1    1

V2      (same as V1)
Ch
Br      6-   6-   4    4
        6-   6-   ^5   57
Ch
Tag     [4 5]  1  <1>

Lyric sheets with chords

The other chart you will see everywhere is the lyric sheet with chord names above the words. It is the folk singer's standard, and it is what you will hand to the guitar player at an open mic. The chord goes directly above the syllable where it changes.

G                    C
Down at the county building
G                     D
They raised the rate again
G                        C
The meter on the back porch
D                  G
Spins faster than the wind

Lyric sheets are easy to read but vague on timing. You cannot tell from that sheet whether the D lasts one bar or two. The number chart solves that. A good habit for a band: lyric sheet for the singer, number chart for everyone else.

Thinking in numbers changes how you write

Once you think in numbers, you start to notice that songs you love share skeletons. A gospel song and a drinking song can both be 1 4 1 5. You stop thinking "G to C" and start thinking "home to the four," and suddenly you can hear the four in any key. That is how session players learn a song from one listen. They hear how far each chord sits from home, and the letters take care of themselves.

It also makes you a better co-writer. "What if the chorus starts on the 6 minor instead of the 4?" is a sentence a co-writer can test in five seconds, in whatever key the guitar happens to be sitting in.