Hey music makers!
Hope you're staying safe this week. If you were anywhere in Winter Storm Fern's path, I'm thinking about you. Stay warm 🙏
Now, let me take your mind off the weather for a few minutes with a music story.
Back in 1958, in a Nashville studio. The Jordanaires were tracking a session, and the artist decided they wanted to try the song in three different keys to find the right fit for their voice.
Every key change meant rewriting the entire chart from scratch, burning through time, money, and studio momentum.
Session player Neal Matthews Jr. and his fellow musicians came up with a brilliant solution: write the harmony once using numbers instead of chord names.
Change keys? No problem, just change your reference point. No rewriting needed.
That innovation became the Nashville Number System. Now it's used everywhere, from major music schools like Berklee to cruise ships, in the church, and studio sessions worldwide.
The reason it spread so widely is because It solves a problem every musician faces: how do you remember progressions across multiple keys without your brain overloading?
This is one of three notation systems covered in Harmony GPS, the 30-day course that helps you understand, remember, and create emotional harmony faster. Students love how clear it is. See if it's right for you →
Now let me show you how this system can transform your ability to transpose instantly and communicate clearly under pressure.
📻 REAL SONGS. REAL PROGRESSIONS
💿 "21st Century Man” by Electric Light Orchestra
Key: C Major
Verse Progression (Nashville Numbers): 1 - 5add6 - 6m - 3m - 57/4 - 4
Same progression in chord symbols (C major): C - G6 - Am - Em - C7/F - F
What makes this work:
ELO uses a progression that moves through multiple emotional colors.
It starts stable on the 1 (tonic), adds brightness with the 5add6, dips into minor territory with 6m and 3m, then creates tension with a secondary dominant (57/4) before resolving to 4.
Now, if you only knew this progression as C-G6-Am-Em-C7/F-F, you'd have to completely rethink it to play in a different key. But when you know it as 1-5add6-6m-3m-57/4-4, you can play it in any key instantly.
Let's try it in G major: G - Dadd6 - Em - Bm - G7/C - C
And in F major: F - C6 - Dm - Am - F7/Bb - Bb
Same progression, different keys. The numbers make it simple to move between them without relearning the whole thing.
🧠 IDEA OF THE WEEK
The Nashville Number System
What it is: A way to write chord progressions using numbers (1-7) that represent scale degrees instead of specific chord names.
Why it matters: When the singer says, "Can we try this in E♭?" you don't freeze. You don't rewrite. You just play. The numbers stay the same, only your reference key changes.
How it works:
Numbers 1 through 7 represent the seven scale degrees:
1 = Tonic (your home base)
2, 3, 6 = Usually minor
4, 5 = Usually major
7 = Diminished
Basic quality symbols:
No symbol = Major (1, 4, 5)
m or - = Minor (2m, 3m, 6m)
7 = Dominant seventh (57 means G7 in C major)
maj7 = Major seventh (1maj7 means Cmaj7 in C major)
Now you know the basics, so let's say you have this progression: 1 - 6m - 4 - 5
In C major: C - Am - F - G
In G major: G - Em - C - D
In F major: F - Dm - Bb - C
This works for:
Learning songs for a last-minute performance
Capo changes on guitar
Key changes mid-song
Communicating with other musicians quickly
Why session players love it:
Remember, in the late 50s, Nashville studio players had to chart songs on first listen and transpose on the fly. Roman numerals felt too academic. Chord symbols were too slow to rewrite.
So they reduced it down: numbers 1 through 7 plus a few symbols borrowed from jazz.
The system allows you to quickly learn, communicate, and perform songs. And if a key change is necessary, everyone can do it pretty instantly.
Speed is very important in a lot of music scenarios.
That's the power of this system, and why it became the default across pop, country, gospel, and beyond.
The practical payoff:
When you think in Nashville numbers, you're thinking in relationships instead of fixed pitches. A 1-4-5 progression always creates the same harmonic movement, whether you're in C, G, or Ab.
You reduce the cognitive load of needing to memorize individual songs in individual keys and start recognizing patterns that work everywhere.
🎯 CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK
Take a progression you already know and practice the Nashville Number System:
Option 1 (Easiest): Simple four-chord progression
Pick: 1 - 5 - 6m - 4 (very common pop progression)
Play it in C major: C - G - Am - F
Transpose to G major: G - D - Em - C
Notice how the numbers guide you
Option 2 (Medium): Create your own number chart
Take any song you know well
Write out the progression in Nashville numbers
Transpose it to 3 different keys using only the numbers
Try timing yourself to train for speed (this is what I’m working on)
I've never played in a band or worked as a session musician. I'm a producer, so I learned the Nashville number system by practicing with commercial songs I was teaching myself.
I'd chart songs and save them in my Apple Notes. Over time, that collection grew, and the system became second nature.
In practicing this system, I started spotting patterns in harmony. Looking at numbers instead of chord symbols made relationships between chords more obvious.
This system improves your chord progression retention, reveals important relationships in harmony, and gives you solid ear training without trying.
Now, when someone says "let's try it up a whole step," I don't panic. I just shift my reference point, and I’m in a new key.
Want to go deeper? If you're serious about mastering this system, check out The Nashville Number System by Chas Williams (amazon).
It provides a step-by-step method on how to write a Nashville number chart for any song and includes 10+ handwritten charts by a pro Nashville guitarist, which is invaluable for seeing how professionals actually use this in real sessions.
