Introduction To The Nashville Number System

Hey there, bass players! 

If you’re curious about the Nashville Number System, go no further! This system of charting truly changed my life and helped me understand music in a new way. As someone who has made over a thousand number charts and spent ten years practicing this system, I’d love to tell you more about it. 

Who Uses The Nashville Number System? 

This method is widely used in both the session scene and for live performances, particularly amongst professionals. Whether you’re making records or learning music for a gig, it’s customary to either receive, write, or provide these types of charts. 

While it evolved out of the Nashville session scene, it has become more and more popular within the greater musical community. So, long story short, you don’t need to live in Nashville to use the “Nashville Number System.” It’s just a really great way to communicate music, especially if your peers and musical buddies jump on the bandwagon. 

How Is A “Nashville Number Chart” Different From Other Types Of Charts? 

First things first, it’s helpful to understand a little bit about different types of charts so that you can get a handle on why the Nashville Number System is unique. Here’s a short video to break things down for you! 

Similar to a jazz chart, the “Nashville Chart” allows everyone in the band to follow the basic structure and form of the song, as well as the chord progression. It also allows for basic rhythmic and arrangement notation. This helps everyone in the band play stops, tie chords together, hold notes, or change dynamics. The beauty of this system is that everyone can follow the chart while improvising a part on their own instrument. 

Harmonizing The Major Scale 

A basic chart includes the key of the song and “numbers” relating to the scale degrees of the major scale. So, if you’re playing in the key of C, the numbers would equate to: 

C          D          E          F          G         A          B          

1          2          3          4          5          6          7 

This is often done in the jazz and classical world as well, with one crucial difference. In “traditional” harmonic analysis, chord qualities are defined by Roman numerals. Upper case letters refer to major chords, while lower case letters refer to minor chords. As we build chords on each scale degree, otherwise known as “harmonizing the major scale,” we naturally get: 

C          D          E          F          G         A          B

I           ii          iii         IV         V          vi         vii Ø

In Nashville Numbers, major chords are written as just the number, while minor chords must have a minus sign (-) or lowercase “m” to signify minor: 

1          2-         3-         4          5          6-         7  

Know The Key Of The Song!  

When we chart out a song, we write everything in terms of the key and use the number to show what chord we’re on. 

For example, if we’re in the key of C and we play two bars of C (the 1 chord), followed by two bars of F (the four chord), the chord progression in “Nashville Numbers” will look like this: 

1          1          4          4  

We know that both chords will be major (since we haven’t indicated a minor sign), and we can now begin to improvise a bass line over these changes. 

One huge advantage of the number system is the ability to easily transpose to another key. Believe it or not, we can play and communicate the same chord progression, or the same harmonic movement, by following the same musical rules in the new key.   

If we wanted to play this chord progression in the key of A, we would find these chords in relation to the A Major scale: 

A          B          C#        D          E          F#        G#       

1          2          3          4          5          6          7

So, our chord progression of two bars of 1 followed by two bars of 4, we would simply move between an A Major chord and a D Major chord. 

How Do We Know What To Play? 

We can read these chords and then improvise a bass line over the changes. Obviously, we’re not reading music note-for-note, so we need to have some basic improv skills. This is where your knowledge of triads and arpeggios, pentatonic scales, passing tones, and even chromatic motion will come in handy. 

In terms of improvising a bass line, it’s incredibly helpful to practice moving from one chord to the next. After all, that’s what we do within a chord progression. To get some practice with this, I recommend checking out my ebook bundle, Beginner Improvisation For Bass Players. You can even download the first ebook for free at my free ebook page!

Here’s a video that may help you to improvise over these changes! 

Obviously, there’s a good chance that your chord progression is going to do more than move from “1 to 4,” so things will get slightly (but not that much more) complicated. That said, this is a great start in terms of building familiarity with this system. Reading and writing charts will take plenty of practice, but it’s definitely a great skill to have. 

There’s plenty more to learn about the number system, so please check back for more blogs and videos. Fun fact: I also host a Masterclass on this topic every now and then! To learn more about my masterclasses, sign up for my news letter!