Hello all!  I just wanted to give a special thanks to Matthew Daniel who so graciously stopped by and added some thoughts and things I was missing and/or mistaken about with the Nashville Number System.  In my haste to do a comparison post I didn’t research as much as I should and wanted to give a huge thanks to him!  I’ll revisit it again in the future and please see Matthew’s comments here and here.

Wednesday we looked briefly at the Nashville Number system. Today I’d like to talk about the Roman numeral system equivalent and touch briefly on the benefits and disadvantages of each.  The NNS system basically works like this:

Comparison

C – D – E – F- G – A – B – C
1 – 2- 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8

The Roman Numeral Equivalent would be:

C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C
I – ii – iii – IV – V – vi – vii° – I

Another comparison that needs to be made is how each system handles chord inversions. Inversions are so important to helping the overall sound of the music and shorthand ways to notate them are needed.

The NNS notates inversions as using the first number as the chord and the second number behind a slash as the chord degree (note) that needs to be played on the bottom.  So, in the key of C, a C (1) that is in its first inversion would be notated as 1/3.  A C in second inversion would be 1/5.

Roman Numeral system notates inversions quite differently.  The same example above (C in first inversion) would be written as I 6 (the 6 being in superscript next to the I – sorry, couldn’t find the superscript button!) and the second inversion as I 6/4.  (This is really hard to explain in a blog post, so when you’re finished reading the next section, come back and visit here for more information about inversions.)

Benefits and Disadvantages to Each

The major disadvantage to the Nashville Number System is that you need to already know if certain chords are major or minor.  Whereas, in the Roman numeral system, an upper case numeral always indicates a major chord and a lower case numeral always indicates a minor chord.  There are several symbols in the Roman Numeral system that indicate different types of chords (augmented, diminished, etc.)  In the NNS, the type of chord always has to be written out (aug, dim, maj7, min7, etc.)

One advantage, however, to NNS is the ability to notate measures quickly.  I found the use of parentheses as a means to notate measures particularly helpful.

One disadvantage to the Roman Numeral system is that the figured bass used for inversions can be difficult to understand.  Inversions in NNS seem very easy.

Conclusion:

While I myself am not extremely familiar with the NNS, it’s starting to grow on me.  If anyone has any other tips about it, please leave a comment!  Also, why do you like one system or the other better?  Have you had experience with either?

Continuing on from yesterday – let’s take a look at a different take on music theory notation, the Nashville Number System.  As I’m writing this, I’ve decided to make this a mini-series for the rest of the week – as there’s a lot to cover.

Previously we have only looked at the classic Roman Numeral system of notating chords within the music. I want to spend some time in this post looking at the differences of the two and offer some thoughts as to the benefits and drawbacks of each.

Nashville Number System in Brief

The basic gist of the Nashville Number System is to simplify, simplify, simplify.  It consists of numbers (obviously) that correspond to each chord of the scale.  So, just like the notes of a scale these numbers range from 1-7 (and 8 for the repeated root note).  So, if you’re in the key of C – the numbers would look like this:

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8(octave)
C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

In this system, you need to know right away which chord is major and which chord is minor.  The system assumes the diatonic (written within the key signature) chords when each basic number is written.  So, if you see a 1, 4 or 5 – you need to know that it’s a major chord and if you see a 2, 3, or 6 you need to know it’s a minor chord.  The 7 is a different story altogether.  The system adds a capital ‘M’ if the chord needs to be change to a major chord.

The system will add suffixes to the chords if they need to be extended.  For example, if you want to play a G suspended chord in the key of C, it would be written 5sus4.  The system also allows for the ability to shorthand more than one chord in a measure.  Extra chords within a measure are written in parentheses – (1 4) (1 5).  In C, this would tell you to play C – F for the first measure and then C – G for the second measure.

There are a few more things to the Nashville Number system.  I just wanted to give a very basic crash course for our purposes.  A good, brief overview of more of the system can be found here. Tomorrow we’ll look at the classic Roman Numeral equivalent to the chords above and then Friday we’ll dive in to the benefits and drawbacks of both systems.