The Nashville Number System

Learn Exactly How The Pros Do It

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Click picture to enlarge	The Nashville Number System Finally a "How-to" Book on the Nashville Number System. "This is the most complete version of the Nashville Number System as I've ever seen"   Charlie McCoy "... a book I really needed back in 1983"   Mark O'Connor "This book seems to be the definitive answer"   Brent Rowan $19.95 Add to Cart   View Cart
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In the late 50's, Neil Matthews devised a musical number system for the Jordanaires to use in the studio. Charlie McCoy and fellow studio musicians began adapting Matthews' number system into chord charts. The Nashville Number System has evolved into a complete method of writing chord charts and melodies---combining Nashville shorthand with formal notation standards. Professional musicians in Nashville work everyday in the studio, auditioning and rehearsing for artists or playing for someone who wants to showcase their talent for a record company--all with no time to memorize a cd's worth of material. If rehearsal time is at a premium, a chord chart is often the only way for a band who has never worked together to perform music with any confidence. New with Edition 6 is the cd, "1511". This is a 9 song cd of original instrumental material included with each NNS book. Charts for each song are found in the book. As well, Chas walks you through the intricacies of each song and explains the Number System tools used to write each chart. Now, while listening to the cd, you can see and hear how Nashville number charts work. "I'd say 95% of the time we use Number System charts. The one really great advantage of the Number System is the ease of transposition--if a singer comes in and the song is in F and he or she says, 'No, I want to do this in Eb', you'd have a problem with a regular chart. You'd have to rewrite the whole thing. Whereas with the Number Chart, you just say, 'Eb? Okay!'" Brent Mason from Country Guitar Magazine interview The Nashville Number System contains an 108 page step by step method of how to write a Nashville number chart for any song. Included is a collection of handwritten number charts of country standards. Each song is charted by hand from the original single by: Charlie McCoy (Hee-Haw) Eddie Bayers (#1 session drummer) Jimmy Capps (studio guitarist, Grand Ole Opry) Barry Beckett (producer, keyboardist) Lura Foster (charts for TNN shows: Nashville Now, Music City Tonight, Primetime Country) Brent Mason (Most called session guitarist in Nashville) Each of these musicians wrote a number chart in his or her style from the Pasty Cline single Crazy , the Ray Price version of Crazy Arms and many others. As a result, you are exposed to the contrast of charting styles that a musician may encounter in Nashville.
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