15 Nashville numbers

Because it is contained on a single sheet of paper, a Nashville number chart also shows us a song’s form in its entirety, with section labels on the left side of the chart. We will explore this aspect of Nashville number charts when we study form in popular music in Chapter 37.

Example 15-1 shows an example of a Nashville number chart. At the top, it provides all of the basic information about the song—its key, meter, tempo, title, and songwriter. The chart shows each section, labeled with abbreviations, and the chord progression denoted in Arabic numbers that represent the scale degree upon which each chord is built. The “x” symbols indicate places where no chord is used. Arabic numbers with no modification, like “1” and “4” here, simply indicate the major tonic and major subdominant triads. The use of the superscript “7” indicates a major-minor seventh chord, so the “5⁷” symbol means the dominant seventh chord. If the song is performed in the key of G major, the “1” indicates the G major triad, the “4” indicates the C major triad, and the “5⁷” indicates D7 (the D major-minor seventh chord).

The default harmonic rhythm is one chord per bar, unless notated otherwise using slashes to show more frequent chord changes. For example,

1     4     5     1/5

would mean to play the tonic, subdominant, and dominant chords for one measure each, then the tonic and dominant chords for half a measure each.

Chord qualities other than major triads and major-minor seventh chords are indicated with additional symbols. For minor chords, the symbol is the Arabic number with a “-” following it. For example, “2-” would indicate a minor supertonic triad. Major seventh chords are typically indicated with either a “maj7” or “7” suffix, and minor seventh chords are indicated with a “-7” suffix.

Inverted chords are easily shown in the Nashville Number System using fraction-like symbols, in which the top number refers to the scale degree of the chord root and the bottom number refers to the bass note. For example, in the key of G major, the symbol “” would mean a G major chord with B in the bass (first inversion).

Songs in minor keys are often notated with symbols associated with the relative major key, naming the relative major as tonic instead of the minor key. In this case, the minor tonic chord would be written as “6-” rather than “1-”.