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.

These are not the Beatles you are looking for

New Pedal

We found out my pedalboard can power a label maker.
Maybe I can add this to the board...

Gibson Custom Shop ES330 with Bigsby

Check out this Gibson ES330!
Super cool guitar!

Pardon the weird look on my face, I promise I wasn't trying to stare into the camera...

Polytune Mini

This is a cute little tuner!
Perfect for saving space on a pedalboard.
The display appears to be about the same size as led's as the original polytune. There is a bunch of new compact/mini pedals coming out that have great tone and save you a bunch of space on your board. The polytune mini is the perfect tuner to save you some space and help you jam as many cool pedals as you can on your board. I used the original polytune for a year and loved the accuracy and how smooth the leds would move.

This is the perfect tuner for building the mini pedalboard of your dreams! 

2012 Tele Standards

Just got in the new 2012 Teles!

The new standards from Fender are pretty rockin!
The Teles have a new body contour, twisted tele pickup in the neck, and a broadcaster pickup in the bridge.

The Strats have Fat 50's pickups, aged pickup covers and knobs, and a copper infused high mass 100% metal bridge.

Both guitars boast of a thinner undercoat for improved resonance of the body.

Rock!








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Chord Inversions

One of the first basic things you learn on guitar is that moving a chord shape up the fretboard changes the note, i.e. Barring an E chord and moving it up a fret is an F and so on. This concept is taught pretty early in your guitar education and at first seems to only apply to the E and A barre chord shapes. From there, you probably learned power chords and mastered the top 4 strings of the guitar and could play rock songs like a champion.

In worship music, the concept of the barre chord is typically seen by the use of the capo. Most people will capo on the second fret and play G, C, D, Em to play a song that is in the key of A. A lot of Chris Tomlin songs are played with the G chord forms and using a capo to alter the key. It sounds great on an acoustic guitar, but if you are an electric guitar player I would challenge you to not use a capo and to learn the alternate chord shapes to play chords higher on the fretboard. Playing chords in different positions will add dynamics and fullness to a song.

For the examples below, I have taken the key of E and transposed it to 4 different inversions.
The idea is the same concept you achieve when you capo a guitar and play standard open chords. If you capo'd on the second fret and played the chords G, C, D, and Em you would be playing in the key of A and actually be playing A, D, E, and F#m. Chord inversions are the exact same idea as using the capo and playing standard chords, they just remove the use of the capo and allow you to have full usage of the fretboard at all times.  The 4 inversions below are based on the chord shapes of E, D, C, & G, but are moved up the fretboard and allow you to stay in the key of E.
 
E Chord Inversion
You are probably very used to these shapes and chords, all of these chords allow you to play lower on the fretboard.

E in a D Shape Chord Inversion
This allows you to play in around the 3rd to 5th fret and uses a D shape chord form.
Think about this like being capo'd on the 2nd fret and playing D, A, G, Bm, etc.

E in a C Shape Chord Inversion
This allows you to play around the 5th - 7th fret and uses a C shape chord form.
Think about this like being capo'd on the 4th fret and playing C, F, G, Am, etc.

E in a G Shape Chord Inversion
This allows you to play around the 10th to 12th frets and uses a G shape chord form.
Think about this like being capo'd on the 9th fret and playing G, C, D, Em, etc.