Re: [Harp-L] Nashville number system explained

[Vern <jevern@xxxxxxx>]

On Apr 18, 2010, at 2:28 PM, Ken Deifik wrote:

> Phil wrote:
>> If you've always wanted to know how the Nashville Number System worked,
>> here is a link to a Primier Guitar page that explains it.
> 
> 
> .................However, if you're a chromaticist and you can improvise around chords and the music stays in the same key and doesn't modulate, and the producer wants you to improvise all over the place, the number system becomes highly useful.  (Donna Lee doesn't sit well in the Nashville number system.)
> 
> And if you're hired to play one of those instruments that was considered a real instrument by the American Federation of Musicians before 1949, like say guitars, pianos, basses, etc, the number system is positively golden.

The Nashville number system isn't much different from the roman numerals used to designate chords in "music theory" or "tonal harmony" classes.  They add arabic numeral superscripts for four-note chords and use lower-case for minor chords.  In Nashville, they use arabic numerals and - for minors...not a huge difference.  

The advantage of the number system is that it is not key-specific.  Once you write it down, it works for any key.

The disadvantage is that you must mentally associate a different chord in every key with a number.  How many of you know immediately (without counting on your fingers) that the -6 chord in the key of E is C#m (C#, E, G#)?  If you can do that for 12 keys and 7 numbers for 84 combinations and 253 sets of 3 notes, you have my admiration.  I'm not saying that it can't be done, just that it doesn't seem either simple or easy to me!  If the vocalist wants to go up a halftone from C to Db, I have a problem even if I'm looking at the chord numbers.
 
I always took the fact that the Nashville session players could use the number system as proof that they were very accomplished musicians.  If you don't know all of the chords by number in all of the keys, the Nashville number system won't help you.  

Vern