Intro to the Nashville Number System

The Nashville number system developed in Nashville studios in the late 50's. It is great for musicians to quickly chart a song and makes it easy to transpose that song into another key without having to re-chart the tune.

The basics of the system is that each chord is numbered within their corresponding key. Using this you can chart a song and then be able to reuse it at another time regardless of what key the band wishes to play in.

Here is a breakdown of the chords that would be in these corresponding keys:

Majoy Key	1	2-	3-	4	5	6-	7°
A	A	Bm	C#m	D	E	F#m	G#dim
Bb	Bb	Cm	Dm	Eb	F	Gm	Adim
A	B	Dbm	Ebm	E	Gb	Abm	Bbdim
C	C	Dm	Em	F	G	Am	Bdim
Db	Db	Ebm	Fm	F#	G#	A#m	Cdim
D	D	Em	F#m	G	A	Bm	C#dim
Eb	Eb	Fm	Gm	Ab	Bb	Cm	Ddim
E	E	F#m	Abm	A	B	C#m	D#dim
F	F	Gm	Am	Bb	C	Dm	Edim
F#	F#	G#m	Bbm	B	C#	D#m	E#dim
G	G	Am	Bm	C	D	Em	F#dim
Ab	Ab	Bbm	Cm	C#	D#	Fm	Gdim

Minor Key	1-	2°	3	4-	5-	6	7
Am	Am	Bdim	C#	Dm	Em	F#	G#
Bbm	Bbm	Cdim	D	Ebm	Fm	G	A
Am	Bm	Dbdim	Eb	Em	Gbm	Ab	Bb
Cm	Cm	Ddim	E	Fm	Gm	A	B
Dbm	Dbm	Ebdim	F	F#m	G#m	A#	C
Dm	Dm	Edim	F#	Gm	Am	B	C#
Ebm	Ebm	Fdim	G	Abm	Bbm	C	D
Em	Em	F#dim	Ab	Am	Bm	C#	D#
Fm	Fm	Gdim	A	Bbm	Cm	D	E
F#m	F#m	G#dim	Bb	Bm	C#m	D#	E#
Gm	Gm	Adim	B	Cm	Dm	E	F#
Abm	Abm	Bbdim	C	C#m	D#m	F	G

It's important to know all the notes in each key and their corresponding chords based on that scale. For major keys you should always remember that the scale for each key is always laid out from the root: Whole step / Whole Step / Half Step / Whole Step / Whole Step / Whole Step / Half Step

Basics to writing a Nashville Number chart
Every number represents 1 measure unless otherwise noted.
Each Line represents 4 bars.
A "-" next to a number makes that chord a minor chord.
A number written inside a <> means to play diamonds (Chord played a sustained).
A small 7, 9, or ° next to a number means that number is a 7th, 9th, or diminished chord.
Rest, Time Signatures, Repeats, Codas, Crescendos, Decrescendos, etc. that are written in sheet music have the same purpose and use in a number chart.
Notes written before a || at the beginning of a line are pickup notesMore than one note being played in a measure is notated by putting those notes in a box or underlining those notes on a line,
I, V, Chnl, C, B, Ta, Solo, Tag are used to notate Intro, Verse, Channel, Chorus, Bridge, Turn around, Solo, & Tag repeats.



Here is an example of how to write a chart. This is a chart for Forever Reign. This is notated to be played in the key of C in 4/4 time. The first line has an I written for the intro which repeats C for 4 bars. The next line is Verse 1 repeats the 2 Bars of C and then 2 Bars of G/B. This line also has an additional two measures of C. Verse 2 is the same except for the notation of a crescendo into the chorus. I wrote this out quickly, but this is the basic gist of how to write a chart. The best part of this is when you learn to do this quickly and save the chart, you have an easily transpose-able chart you can play anywhere with.