Nashville Number System

2001-03-30 05:00 am

Does NoteWorthy support Nashville Number System?
TIA.
Tom

Re: Nashville Number System

Reply #1 – 2001-03-31 05:00 am

If I understand correctly, you're referring to the harmonic functions system used for country music (all uppercase Roman numerals, with modifiers e.g. I VIm IV V). NWC supports it in the sense that you can add anything you like as text, and position it just about anywhere you want it. It does not, however, automagically analyse your chords to determine what the chord function is.

Re: Nashville Number System

Reply #2 – 2001-04-06 04:00 am

Better late than never. Nashville borrowed heavily from Piston and Persichetti, which I learned almost 40 years ago. I guess renaming it for a country town makes it legit? Not trying to be snooty. No offense.

Re: Nashville Number System

Reply #3 – 2001-05-20 04:00 am

Uhm.. Not to be an INTP (Look it up. it's a personality type), but the Nashville Number System utilizes Arabic neumerals, not Roman. Roman numerals are used in Common Practice Theory analyzation. They're similar, but not quite.

CPT is meant to be used to analyze scores of early baroque to early 1900's eras. The NNS is more versatile, in that it can represent "color" chords that one normally couldn't use in CPT.

Personally, I use a mixture of both when I notate charts. I use Roman with the color intervals as arabic, i.e. IV^2 to represent 4^2 or an F2 in the key of C. It just works easier, IMO, than establishing a key and having to write 2 different keys for a song. Just write one chart, and everyone can follow.

It's rather jazzish, but hey, it works. I can testify that it works better than strict letter chords, because my praise band spent one whole practice one night trying to transpose a song from F to E. Later on, I brought in a song charted in my little hybrid, and when we had to lower the key, it was perfect. We still used the same chart, without having to rewrite every single chord.

Give it a try sometime. You might just like it.