NASHVILLE
NUMBER SYSTEM
We are beginning to implement The Nashville Number System throughout the Victory Worship Team! This is a method used by many musicians to quickly transpose chord progressions among any key. Think about the Nashville Number System like times tables we learned in school. It’s a quick reference sheet that over time becomes like second nature as you continue to apply it. With a little understanding and practice, this system will become a core part of how we communicate chord progression during services.
Pretend it’s a Sunday morning. We’re in a flow moment and the music director is playing keys. All of a sudden, your MD calls out chords to the flow song in the key of B. They call out B, G#m, F#, E. However, you’re an acoustic player who is playing in G with a capo on your 4th fret. The B chords being called out will not help you since you are playing chords in the key of G!
This is where the Nashville Number System comes in! In place of chords; your MD could call “numbers” and those numbers would apply to every one of the 12 keys. In the above example; they could call 1, 6, 5, 4 & it would translate to every musician on the platform regardless of whether they’re transposed or capoed.
To learn the Nashville Number System, start by recognizing your current chord progression followed by finding your current key in the chart below.
As an example, let’s pretend we’re in the key of C, and the progression we want to play is C, F, G, Am. If you look at the top row of the chart; you’ll see this progression corresponds to a 1, 4, 5, 6. This is your number progression. You can now use these numbers to find the chords in any key you need! If you're playing Capo 1 and in the key of B; the same 1, 4, 5, 6 chord progression will get you lined up with everyone playing in C. You would play a B, E, F#, G#m (1,4,5,6). Learning this system will enable your music director to call one set of numbers for everyone on the platform and eliminate musicians having to transpose on the fly in a live setting.
If you’re a visual learner; this video might help you understand the Nashville Number System a little better!
If you have taken a glance at the Nashville Number Chart provided, you may notice any chord under the 2,3,& 6 categories have a small m next to them. This m signifies that the chord is a minor chord. Anytime we are playing in Major keys, the 2m,3m,& 6m will always be minor, while the 1, 4, & 5 chords are always major. “7” chords are diminished! Think of this as a Nashville Number Rule for all major keys!
While a chord can be made up of 3, 4 or even 5 notes played at once, we will be taking a look at triad chords. A triad is a chord made up of 3 notes. For example, a G Major triad chord is made when the notes G, B, & D are played together. You'll notice a few notes got skipped to make that chord. That pattern is important, and you will notice all major triad chords will follow that pattern. Now minor chords are not much different. If we wanted to form a G minor chord, all we would need to do is drop the middle note a half step down. This means G minor would be made up of G, Bb, & D. This is true for any minor chord, so an Em chord is just an E major chord with the middle note dropped a half step. This video might help you understand it a little better visually.