Nashville Number System Cheat Sheet

Usually at WLC we focus on the leadership side of leading worship, but today we're looking at a great musical tool. It's a cheat sheet for the Nashville Number System (below).

If you're not familiar with it, it's a system for transposing songs by assigning each chord in a key a number. Start with the root of the key, for instance A. A is assigned the number 1. Then B = 2, C = 3 and so on. You might be looking at that a little funny since B and C aren't in the key of A. That's the next thing to know about the number system. Numbers 2, 3 and 6 are always minor. The third thing to to know is that is that number 7 is diminished. So you'll play a 5/7. Keeping with the example in the key of A that would be E/G#. Does that make sense?

I know it may be a little confusing now, but study the chart a bit! You'll get it! If you have any questions just reply to this email and I'll get back to you ASAP!

The Nashville Number System is a game changer - especially if you have multiple singers who may sing the same song in different keys or if you like to flow from song to song without changing keys.