The Nashville Number System

Excerpt of a Nashville Number System chart

The answer to all of these questions lies in a little-known solution called the Nashville Number System. This fairly simple system to write down music is widespread in the Country Music field (especially in the studio/session world). Its origins can be traced back to Elvis Presley’s harmony singers, in particular Neil Mathews of the Jordanaires. He devised this musical number system to be used in the recording studio. After Charlie McCoy saw this method he and countless other musicians and session leaders adapted the system to their own needs and used it on many sessions. Today it has evolved into a complete method of writing charts for sessions (sometimes it is also referred to as the “Nashville Shorthand”).

One of the main advantages of the Nashville Number System is the fact that its way of notating a song is completely key-independent. This comes in very handy in the recording studio, where a lot of times keys have to be changed on-the-fly to accommodate singers’ vocal ranges and preferences.

As there are no standards and rules for the Nashville Number System, everybody can and has made their own little set of rules – therefore you can find charts written in different ways for the same song. Once you ‘get the picture’ of how the system works, you should be able to quickly adapt to anybody’s customized style and play any song (in any key) right away.

To find more detailed information about the Nashville Number System, please visit Chas Williams’ website and order his outstanding book on this very helpful way to jot down the songs you learn/play.