https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/the-nashville-number-system-beginner
Want to play any song or lick in any key? Nashville musicians have been doing it for decades, and in this groundbreaking course, I explain to you the theory secrets you need to know! Join us on my back porch during a Cabin Camp session & learn the Nashville Number System!
This is great thank you! Perfect for my preparation for the upcoming Cabin Camp.
I loved the part of the discussion about why we leave the 4 and the 5 out of the major scale to give us the Pentatonic scale. In my Medieval music history study, I found out that the 4 and 7 introduce dissonance into the overall harmony, and many times those notes were avoided for that reason. In fact, if you play the 4 and 7 together, they form a tritone - the ULTIMATE dissonance. They (Medieval Theory-Nerdists) even gave that bad boy a name… “Musica Diabolos” (or “Diabolos Musica” I always forget Latin Word order) which means the “Devils’s Music/Interval”. This was avoided a LOT as the Monk/musicians didn’t want the Devil’s interval in the Lord’s music! The remaining 5 notes (the Pentatonic scale) are what I call the “sweet notes” and they can be played over any chord in that key. This is what makes the Pentatonic scale a good place to start when it comes to learn soloing.
This is really clearing the air for me thanks so much Banjo Ben!
I enjoyed the lesson! I need to start using it more so that when I need it is second nature, regardless of what shape I am playing out of.
Thanks Ben! I’ve been working through the Nashville Numbering System (NNS) method/approach for breaking down songs in our church hymnal to play on guitar. I’ve found that hymns can be some of the most difficult to play because they are arranged for piano and incorporate some very odd chords when playing on guitar. In most cases each beat is a different chord which tends to sound very strange/unmusical on a guitar. I find using the NNS method/approach works very well for boiling things down to the main chord structure of a song, but I’m not able to do this on the fly yet. More mental practice is needed. Our church pianist is fantastic at reading the music but is unable to transpose, so this puts me in the position of needing to arrange the songs for guitar in the same key as our hymnal which means some strange keys show up such as A Flat and E Flat etc…but I’ve started using positions to play out of (G, D, C, F, E, A) and then us a capo to transpose into the keys that she plays in. Then I use the NNS to ID the chord structure and off we go. The NNS really is helpful in keeping things clear when referring to the chord progression of a song……ie… I, IV, V, vi, IV, I or 1, 4, 5, 6, 4, 1. My music theory teacher taught us using roman numerals, this sets up the Major Chords in capitals and the minor chords in lower case. A little more cumbersome than using numbers though. I had not thought of using the Nashville Number System for melodic lines…what a great idea and it makes perfect sense. Thanks again and I look forward to more in depth teaching like this. God Bless you!!
Thanks for this, a really good lesson. Will take a little practice to become fluent but this helped my understanding a lot.
I thought I know all about chords and numbering, but I never had anyone make a connection to melody or licks. I think my brain may explode with this knowledge!
After this lesson, you can never use the excuse, “I’m bored” ever again. Just start doing the math in every key! But honestly, this is so helpful for soloing and songwriting too. Knowing where to find your minors and other chords in your key really helps.