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Guide to the Nashville Number System (Patreon)

Published:
2026-07-17 15:38:32
Imported:
2026-07

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Hi all!

The new video is up! Following on from the video I made a few weeks back on learning 30 songs in a day (watch that here), I've put together a full deep dive into the Nashville Number System: where it came from, how it actually works, and then a look at some real charts, including Folsom Prison Blues, Sweet Dreams and a Beatles tune, to show how it's used in practice.

The NNS provides a quick, elegant way to write out chord progressions, and understand songs on a deeper level; it's also very helpful if you play in a band or ever need to jam with other musicians playing unfamiliar tunes.

I'm attaching PDFs of the four charts that I discussed in the video. As I said, these are not my own charts, but charts that I've found online.

If you need to write out your own Nashville Number charts, I recommend an app called 1Chart, which is a brilliant and fast way to write out professional-looking charts. It's something I use myself a lot when I need to provide other musicians with charts.

I hope everybody has a great weekend. This past week I've been busy filming quite a lot of new content, and there are some exciting things coming up over the next few weeks.

-Adrian

Files

The Nashville Number System Explained (A Complete Guide for Guitarists)

The Nashville Number System is one of the most useful tools a guitarist can learn: a simple way of writing out chord progressions using numbers instead of chord names, which makes transposing effortless and communicating with other musicians much easier. In this video I cover where the system came from, how it actually works, and then walk through several real Nashville charts, including Folsom Prison Blues, Sweet Dreams and the Beatles' From Me to You, to show how it's used in practice. Hope you enjoy the video. Support me on on Patreon and gain access to my huge tab library: https://www.patreon.com/anyonecanplayguitar My in-depth course library: https://courses.anyonecanplayguitar.co.uk My latest album: https://zodiactoys.bandcamp.com/releases SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/3Efy0W3 Check out my website: https://www.anyonecanplayguitar.co.uk Social blah: Instagram (occasionally I post here): https://www.instagram.com/acpgtr/ Chapters below. 00:00 Introduction 02:22 A brief history of the system 04:09 The major scale as your reference point 07:20 Numbering the scale and building chords 09:11 Major and minor chords, and how they're notated 09:51 Chords outside the major scale (flat numbers) 10:58 Rhythm notation: bars, shared bars, and sustains 12:57 Chart example: Folsom Prison Blues 18:49 Chart example: Sweet Dreams 22:54 Fretboard shapes for 1, 4, 5 and 6 minor 25:16 Transposing a chart into different keys 28:01 Chart example: From Me to You 31:52 Where the system falls short: Back in Black 33:39 Bye

Comments

Martin

Ah brilliant, I want to learn that system for quite a while now! Thank you!

John Walsh

Thank you so much for this detailed and clear explanation. I really look forward to watching this one again and again. Have a wonderful weekend.

AFox

Well done Adrian! Always good to know when playing with others.

Richard Adams

i'd like to make sure i'm getting this right: i understand the 2 chord is usually minor, but in the sweet dreams example you said to play it as a major chord because its NOT indicated as being minor. so, even though the 2 is normally minor, the chart should say minor if that's what they want you to play?

albergo

Hi Adrian. Can you say anything about how this system handles songs in minor keys? Do the numbers always refer to the major scale? For example, the progression D-, Bflat, A-, G-. Would that be written as 1-, 6, 5-, 4- in the key of D minor, or as 6-, 4, 3-, 2- in the key of F major? A nerd question I realize.

anyonecanplayguitar

Hi Albergo. Yes, that's basically right. The major scale is always the reference point. Although it's a given that the 6 chord is a flat 6 in a minor key, you should make that clear in the notation as well. So I would notate your progression 1-, b6, 5-, 4-. And as you say, you could also notate this in the relative major key of F, though personally, if it's a minor key song, I prefer to think in the minor key rather than translate from the relative major.