Nashville Number System

You may notice that our song charts, as well as many others you find online, use numbers, instead of letters, to indicate the chords.  This is called the Nashville Number System and it allows players to easily transpose songs into different keys.

At its simplest, the Nashville Number System uses the number assigned to the position in the scale to identify the chord.  For example, if you are playing in the key of G, the notes in the scale are: G-A-B-C-D-E-F#

• The first note in the scale, the root note, is G.  This is the 1 chord.
• The fourth note in the scale is C, and the 4 chord is the C chord.
• The fifth note in the scale is D, and the 5 chord is the D chord.

If you’re playing in the key of A, the scale would be:  A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#. Therefore the 1 chord is A, the 4 chord is D, and the 5 chord is E.

Most Bluegrass songs have just the 1, 4, and 5 chords.  If a song has other chords, the song leader will usually mention it when introducing the song.

If you want to learn more about the Nashville Number System, there are lots of great tutorials on YouTube.  

Here are a couple of great tutorials:

• The Nashville Number System (Part 1) – David Isaacs
• Jerry Rosa – Nashville Numbering System

To quote David Isaacs:  “A 1 chord sounds like home.”