Hi Ray

What I would generally like to know when talking about a song or playing a song is basic information. What key is the song in, what is the tempo, and what style of music are we dealing with. What actually happens playing live is sometimes you get none of that information. The singer/guitar player starts something off and you need to be able to figure out how to play along to that in about the first three notes. Not always easy.

In the case of what you posted, I would likely assume the key of A as most of the chords come from the A scale. By the end of the first bar, I should have the tempo figured out. I would have some idea of the style.

In and of itself a 1,4,5 only indicates the first, the fourth, and the fifth chord of the scale of the key. It does not explain anything about any other chord progression in a song. The only reason anyone would even bring it up was the fact that a zillion songs are in a 1,4,5.
# 1. Sweet home Chicago E-A-B shuffle
# 2. Love in vain G-C-D shuffle
# 3. sitting on top of the world A-D-E shuffle
# 4. you shook me E-A-B slow blues
# 5. ramblin on my mind E-A-B shuffle
#6. I believe i'll dust my broom D-G-A shuffle
#7. Killing floor A-D-E uptempo
#8. Rock me baby B-E-F shuffle
#9. I'm tore down C-F-G shuffle
#10. Double trouble B-E-F slow blues
#11. Wild Thing any key you like...lol

How else could you communicate to someone that simple chord progression without saying one, four, five? Well, you could say this is in the key of C and the chords are C,F,G but the singer wants it in the key of A so play A,D,E but then again the horn player....lol

For me personally, I don't care how the information is stated. 1,4,5 one four five I IV V written out in standard notation or TAB or both or none of the above. If no one says anything I am going to just listen and play by ear.

There are a lot of very common chord progressions 1,6,4,5 for example. If someone said that to you, it would be expected that you would know the 6 chord is a minor chord. These letters and numbers are just a way to communicate and of course, all this gets much more complex than these simple statements.

I don't use Nashville Number System very often and only when that is what I need to do. People generally don't put a piece of sheet music in front of me but I can muddle through it if I must. It is the old joke about how to get a guitar player to shut up...put a piece of sheet music in front of them...lol

If we are sitting in a room together we can communicate just by listening. No need for all the symbolic stuff!

Billy

“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”