After watching the lessons and a few of the lessons following I still have a few questions.
The first is that we always have to figure out the key of the song. Is the key the first note of the song? (I know that you can find the key by looking at the music sheet, but I was curious if there was another way of figuring it out)
The second is when using the system and someone says a Nashville Number to you, what does that mean? Are you supposed to play a specific note or is there some kind of range?
I apologize if these are dumb, but I watched the videos multiple times and I am really struggling.
Sometimes, but it’s risky… usually, the last note is a much better choice for getting a clue. The key is what everything (the melody, the harmony) gravitates to.
Other than that: yes, the sheet music and how many (and which) accidentals you can see at the beginning of a line.
If they shout a Nashville number to you during a song, they’re cuing you to the next chord (because you might not know the song (well)). If they tell you “6” and you know the key of the song is D, then the chord is going to be B (minor). Why? B is a sixth away from D (or B is the sixth scale degree of the D major scale).
Nashville numbers depend on context and are a relative system. Let’s say someone tells you a certain song uses a 1-6-4-5 chord progression, then that alone is not enough - you need to be told the key. Once you know the key, the 1 chord is the chord based on the root, then it goes to the chord over the sixth scale degree, then over the fourth, and finally to the chord over the fifth scale degree.
Because it’s numbers, indicating a relative relationship, it works independent of the key.
Concrete example: you are told the song has the above progression (1-6-4-5) and the key is C. Now you know (with a tiny little bit of extra knowledge from theory) that the chords are C major - A minor - F major and G major.
The week after, the band plays the same tune, but with a new singer, who’d like to sing it a whole tone lower. That means the key is now Bb, and the chords are: Bb major, G minor, Eb major and F major (still 1-6-4-5).
Nashville numbers give you the relationship of the chords relative to each other; you need to work out the actual chords from knowing the key (root) and the notes of the major scale
Nashville Numbers tell you the shape your fingers will play.
You can play that shape anywhere on the fretboard and it’s going to sound basically the same. Because, the order you play the notes and the distance between the notes, will be the same. If you try this with anything you already know how to play, it will become more clear.
Usually, I just store it in a bucket for how a song changes to accomodate different singers. It’s not something you need to know until you start playing with others.
That’s my simplification of it all. For the real answer, trust what @joergkutter wrote.
I will add to this that it’s a good idea to print out the course’s extras. There are some PDFs there with the Bass Line Shapes (major and minor scales and triads, and other useful shapes), the Diatonic Chords, with the major and minor keys and Nashville numbers.
If you know a song is played in a major scale, then check the list of the major keys from the scale in question. It shows the nashville numbers for each note. And when improvising by playing triads, use a major triad for major keys, and minor triad for minor keys.
I hope this was helpful.
In the lessons, in the Module where Diatonic chords and Nashville numbers are introduced, take a look at the comments. There are questions there, which were answered by Josh and Gio. Their explanations might be useful to you. And I’m sure they will help if you still have doubts.
nashville numbers is a good way to memorize songs also. you will start to see common patterns in songs you like. and fyi there are (of course) a number of apps for your phone that can tell you (with reasonable accuracy, they’re not infallible) what key a song is in. but you should learn to use your ears for this although the apps are a good way to test yourself.
Figuring out the key of a song is pretty rough when you’re starting out.
In my experience, 99% of musicians show up and ask the one person in the band who is preparing things what key the song is in.
I’ve been in a lot of rehearsals where people disagree about what key a song is in.
It’s not like this is easy, or that everyone gets it.
But, hopefully, someone knows the key.
Or it says it on the music.
If you’re using Nashville numbers, someone has to either tell you the key, or it has to be indicated on the song chart.
In time and experience, you’ll be able to reverse engineer the key as you learn songs, but that’s not easy, and it’s certainly not expected in the early days.
I think the people above covered this pretty well.
Once you know they key of the song, all chord progressions can be described in relationship to the key.
So, yes. When someone tells you a number, they are expecting to hear a very specific root note from the bass player.
As Josh says in the course (as you go and develop complexity) there are things you can play other than the root note, but the root note - which can be indicated with the Nashville numbers - is the most important thing.
Yes, indeed, you have to start somewhere… Probably with knowing the notes in the major scale (any major scale).
And, by the way, knowing this and being able to find what 6 is “on the fly” are still two different things. I can work it out on paper; doesn’t mean I could do it while playing a song
I think Josh introduces the Nashville numbers to let you know something like this exists. It’s slowly simmering away in the back of your head, while you’re learning other stuff. And then, when you come back to it later, it will make more sense, and much faster.
This is one place where shapes/patterns are super helpful. If you know the shape for playing a major scale, you can play the scale in any key by moving the root note. The 6th will always be in the same place, regardless of the key. Even if you don’t know all of the note names of the fretboard, you can still find the 6th easily by using the shape.
