Untold Stories Kathy Mattea/Tim O'Brien/Hot Rize

[journeybear]

I learned the number system decades before I learned its origin, history, or even its name. I just knew how it worked - numbers assigned to positions on the scale in the key being used. Having already learned the circle of fifths, this made sense, and worked hand in hand with that. When I learned much much later what it was called - and really, this was just in the last year or two - I understood how it would make things easier for session cats, working long days in multiple sessions with several artists, some of whom may be doing the same song in different keys. Situations like this may make a player a bit frazzled, and want to have a system for writing that is as simple and streamlined as possible. That's what this is. I think so, anyway.

[Lord of the Badgers]

Gotta add a +1 to this system - clever idea. I think it might take some working out for some of the balkan style minor scales we use, but it's still pretty cool. Useful for the Eb tuned amongst my band!
Plus it'll totally spin out our guitarist ha ha.

that riffstation thing is awesome. I was double checking the two Beirut tunes we often put in our set (the only covers we do until we can write something of a similar type of song) and they're dead simple tunes, so it was encouraging how correct it was!

[Ivan Kelsall]

Hi JB - Sorry for your frustration,but maybe i'm as frustrated from the other side of things - not 'frustrated',more like puzzled. Why name something twice ?. You either know the 'proper' name of the chords or not. If you don't, then any 'system' is of no use,& i have to admit that in my 'early days',i played more than a few chords that i couldn't have named. I knew the 'shapes' & where to play them to get the right 'sound',but for a $million,i couldn't have named then without a struggle.
'Riffstation' is something i came across a few months ago while searching for a good version of 'Old Daingerfield'. I'm having to un-learn the way i taught myself & re-learn the first couple of bars correctly. I'm still struggling to get the incorrect version out of my head. After 50 + years of learning by ear,that first couple of bars is really bugging me = should have used TAB in the first place !,
Ivan

[UsuallyPickin]

I'm convinced it's all related to how you brain is wired....... I IV VIm V - C F Am G C ..... one language allows the music to be played in any key from a single chart . as long as all the players understand Keys ..... the other specifies Key and requires rewriting to change Key ...... Capos throw every thing off using Key determination also ..Loves me some Capo Cowboys .... It's all about relationships / distances between tones that don't change no matter the key or number..... There's four chord types all the rest is "coloration" ..... tones added to expand the musical statement ... It's still a Major , Minor , Augmented , or Diminished chord .... Sooooo a 6th 7th 9th 11th or 13th are still going to be related to and defined by flat natural or sharp 3rds and 5ths ...... Cm7d5 Im7d5 I digress , ... apologies .... It is easier for me to think in #'s all those letters get me looking for words ...... yes my brain is probably wired funny .... R/

[TheGourdsFan]

Good topic for this beginner;
Recent experience in open jams, learning lots of new songs in different keys, I was still following the guitar player(s), watching their chord shapes.
All was good in the key of G, ( GCD), but on a different song, say in A, and the guitar was capoed...they are still playing a G. I'm thinking, that's a G, I should be on A, etc. Just seemed to be my delay in transposing, but if I looked at the guitar G chord as a I (one), I could get to my A faster. So, I,IV,V to A,D,E was quicker for me than G,C,D to A,D,E.
I'm sure this will get easier with more experience.

[TonyP]

+1 this is exactly the situation the NNS was made for. And the more you do it the more automatic it will become. The great thing is you already know the guitar shapes, when somebody doesn't know that it slows things down to having to call out the #'s. This way once you have the key you are 90% there.

[Jess L.]

This is the Nashville chord notation method, AKA Nashville number system, AKA NNS (apparently), in which the chords correspond to the notes of the scale by their root tones, using Roman numerals. So if this song is in F, then

I = F
IV = Bb
V = C (often also C7)

So that's what the Nashville system is?!? Huh. It looks just like some of the stuff in my old university Music Theory class (way back in the Neolithic era). I thought the Roman numerals were a formal classical-music convention. Interesting.

I agree it's easier to keep track of chords in different keys that way.

Clever, someone deciding to call it "Nashville", probably makes it sound less intimidating, so people would be more willing to learn it.