Five Reasons Everyone in a Band Should Know the Nashville Number System

The most common thing I hear working with bands in the studio, or learning cover songs for the corner bar, is we don't need any music theory or fancy numbering system to play. While this is certainly true, below are five reasons to reconsider that position.

Before discussing why this is important let's take a moment to learn it. Every song has a key and chords are build on top of each note in that key. If a song is in C, then C is the 1 chord, D minor the 2 chord, E minor the 3 chord, and so on. You've probably heard somebody say, "This song is easy, it's just a 1, 4, 5." 

That is the Nashville Number System.

1. It makes changing keys way easier

I learned the value of this as a teen playing in church. I started playing guitar with the youth band, playing many of the same songs from Sunday morning service. However we were young kids, full of energy, without years of vocal strain, and the keys we played our songs in reflected that. As an older teen, I was called up to start playing in the Sunday band where the singers had very different vocal ranges than us youth. Every song they played was a step or two down from what I was used to. 

Fortunately, I was already well versed in the number system and never thought about what I was playing as G, D, E minor, C, I thought of it as 1, 5, 6, 4 in G. When the band leader said this is too high for us so we're going to move it down to E, it was the simplest thing in the world; I would just play 1, 5, 6, 4 in E instead of G. Meanwhile, everyone else has their pencils out, marking an E where every G is on the chart, a B where every D is and so on. We could easily lose ten minutes of rehearsal to transpose while everyone but me painstakingly replaced every chord in their chart.

Start writing the numbers on your chart instead of the chords. Then any time you need to make a key change, it's as simple as knowing the new starting note.

2. It makes communication within the band easier

In a Country band I'm in we have songs where the acoustic guitar has a capo and the electric does not. If we spoke in chords, the conversation could get very confusing. The lead guitarist is playing in G, but the acoustic player is capo-ed on the fifth fret playing in D formation. When the lead player says, "We gotta hit that G all together on beat 1," the acoustic player is wondering if he's supposed to be playing D, which is actually a G chord, or his G, capo’ed 5 which is actually a C chord. Imagine how much easier this situation would be if the lead guitarist could just say, "Remember to hit that 1 chord all together on beat one.”

This system also allows drummers and vocalists who don't play an instrument to join the conversation. As a drummer, I might not know what the key is, but I can hear if someone is late hitting the turn around on the 5 chord.

3. Learning new songs becomes much faster

When I learn a new song listening comes first; I'll listen three or four times before I pick up an instrument to play along. If it's a guitar gig, I'll learn the basic chord progression on my first listen. At that point all I need to learn is which note is the 1 and I can (at least) play the skeleton of the song before I even touch a guitar. Knowing the basic pattern is more than half the battle, and by using simple ear training and the number system, I'll win that battle in three minutes.

4. It opens up your soloing

It's very easy, especially with rock tunes, to know what key you're in and solo in the pentatonic scale. This is fine, but if you have an easy way to keep the chord structure in mind, you can add a ton of spice to your solos. Examples of this are hitting the seventh note in the scale when the band is playing the 5 chord, playing a scale in the key of the song when the band is on the 1 chord, and switching to play the key of the 4 chord when the band goes there. This fast solo transposition is very common in the Country Chicken Pickin guitar style. It's super fun to play and delivers a ton of ear candy to the audience. It's also much easier to put into practice using your numbers.

5. You’re more prepared for new opportunities

Ok, you probably won't get called to Nashville to play on the next album from your favorite star, but there's always a chance of being asked to participate in a last minute gig with number charts. The last thing you want with all the extra nerves is to not know how to read the charts or speak the language. If you spend a few hours learning this simple system, and you're thrust into a situation that uses this common music language, you'll be squared away and will start the session with confidence that you wouldn't otherwise have.

Ultimately, it's your choice how far to go down the theory rabbit hole, but the Nashville Number System is easy to learn and will have an immediate positive impact when mastered. It's the biggest bang for your buck in music.