Why Worship Leaders Should Use the Nashville Numbers System

If you haven’t heard of Nashville numbers, you are in for a treat! (Or maybe a terrifying journey… let’s go with “treat” for now.) It is my personal favorite method of chart-writing for worship. In this series, I’ll be sharing information on what the numbers system is, how it works, and why I believe it’s the best method to use with your worship band.

(Looking for the other posts in this series?)

How To Write Charts with Nashville Numbers: The Chords

We’ll get into the specifics of this method of chart-writing in later posts, but first, I wanted to explain why I personally think this system is so important to use with your worship team.

What are the different options you have for sharing music with your worship band?

First, you have the option of using full sheet music. For some contexts, such as those that use a full orchestra or that use a great deal of complex choir music, this makes more sense than another method. Classically trained musicians may not be able to read a chord chart of any kind, and you want to appreciate the limitations your band may face. Using sheet music is the most costly of the three types. If you want to or already incorporate orchestral elements to your services, I highly recommend Praise Charts. Their orchestrations include a full range of classical instrumentations, and they have a huge selection of modern worship music.

Drawbacks to this method include that musicians must have extensive music theory knowledge, and using sheet music leaves almost no room for changes in the middle of a worship set.

You may also use standard chord charts. These are the type you can download from CCLI’s SongSelect database (CCLI license required), and are probably the most common form of music used by worship bands today. I know you’ve seen them before, but just in case you haven’t – a standard chord chart includes the chord above the word where you play the chord. For example, in “How Great Is Our God,” you may see a C listed above the word “splendor” in verse 1. This method is probably the easiest for several reasons: the charts are easy to find (either in SongSelect or often on artist’s websites), these sort of charts require little to no music theory knowledge, and they’re generally not overcomplicated.

There are many pros and cons to standard chord charts, but the most difficult part about using these, in my opinion, is that they don’t generally give any indication of the number of beats or measures each chord uses, so band members must either know each song very well, or rely on instinct or a leader’s signals for chord changes. In addition, while standard charts allow for more freedom regarding changes mid-service, worship leaders are still limited to whatever key the chart has been printed in. For some churches, the ability to freely adjust to unplanned songs is a key component to corporate worship.

In addition, I am a huge fan of using worship leading as a teaching tool for the people in your ministry. Using standard chord charts doesn’t require the player to grow much in the way of music theory. This isn’t necessarily a drawback, but I definitely like to use methods that help my team members become better musicians.

Which brings me to my personal choice: Nashville Numbers charts. The basic concept of these charts is that they combine the specificity of sheet music (where you can see exactly how to play measures of a song), with the simplicity of standard chord charts (instead of notes on a staff, you see a chord notation, and these charts can generally be kept to 1-2 pages), and adds an additional element: numbers instead of chord letters.

If that sounds insane, I promise – there is a purpose behind it. Full disclosure: the biggest drawback to these charts is that there’s no central database for them – you have to create them yourself. This method also requires your team learn basic music theory in order to play. Yes, it’s a learning curve – but the benefits, in my opinion, outweigh the negatives.

What are those positives? I like lists. Here’s a list.

• One chart for every song – ever (you can play that one chart in any key)
• The number of beats/measures for each chord is indicated
• Your worship team will learn basic music theory (yay for education!)
• Spontaneous worship is made easier because you’re not confined by specific keys
• Musicians who have learned the Nashville Numbers System, but have not been able to rehearse (maybe they’re filling in for someone who called in sick, maybe there was no time for rehearsal) can look at a chart and play it without ever having heard the song

So what does one of these charts look like? Here’s an example of a Numbers chart I typed for our church.

I’ll discuss the details of these types of charts, how to read, and how to write them in later posts.

What do you think? Would you be willing to use Nashville Numbers for your church?