Here is a song you may have listened to written in Nashville Notation.



I have observed that many professional studio musicians can use this system. Whether it is used depends on the music genres and what part of the country/world the studio is in.

Jazz, for example, wonders around out of key enough that the Nashville Number System is more trouble than it is worth. Just my opinion.

There are many variations of the system from studio to studio in Nashville. Time costs money in a studio, so anything that can be done to reduce the cost is often tried.

The educational level of the musicians in question varies with the genres, and, to some extent, age is a factor. The length of time someone has been playing has an effect. Some people who started playing with no idea of music theory generally acquire some along the way. It is possible with today's internet to get a pretty good basic understanding of music theory for free.

Many people in the United States have the money to send their kids to school to study music for many reasons other than becoming a professional musicians. Some of those kids go on to become professionals.

Looking back, I have played with some pretty uneducated blues players. They may have not had formal education but they knew how to play and had a good understanding of basic music theory. They all used something like the Nashville Number System, if only with their hands.

Billy

EDIT: I tried to play this song from the Nashville chart. I have never tried to play it although I have listened to it a few times. I am not sure what the little half eye above the intro chords indicates, arpeggiate perhaps. ( that symbol is not very standard) What becomes readily apparent is that is a system that does not tell you exactly what to play. Go look at the chart, go listen to the recording, and go look up the TAB and you will see what I mean.

It is pretty logical to play this in the key of A on guitar because of the ease of forming the A# dim chord. That is a little more difficult to do in the key of C for example.


Last edited by Planobilly; 07/24/22 11:43 AM.
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