Neal Matthews' Nashville Numbering System

To help you learn how to use the Harmonic scale the way the pros do, we have adapted a system developed by old-timer Neal Matthews, of Nashville fame. Neal's numbering system evolved in Nashville as a way of quickly communicating diatonic progressions that could be used by musicians in the studio who did not all read music, but they sure could play! This system is a serious time-saver for all guitar players who want to play solid music by ear without having to read music.

The lion's share of hit music coming out of Nashville (Austin, L.A., New York, Melbourne, Seattle, Liverpoole or anywhere on earth with a radio is diatonic, or based on the major scale. The same is true of most pop, rock, folk, country, bluegrass and classical music.

The 7-pointed star is our method to help you organize the harmonic scale in each key in a practical and useful way. On the star, you see how each of the points of the star is separated by some kind of 5th. You also see easily the clumping of major and minor chords in blue and red, respectively, and you will later see how to navigate around the points in the star to take your listeners where you want them to go musically.

What you learn right here will be the basis for describing almost all progressions in all your in future lessons pertaining to chord changes. For examble, when we talk about a II - V - I progression in the key of Am, you'll know exactly what we are talking about, and be able to hear the sound of a II - V - I in your head, at the same time your fingers know what chords to play. Since you'll also know the viable substitute chords for each position, you'll also have the ability to flavor your renditions in any way you like, without sacrificing musicality.

Later on, the goal is to get the sounds and relative positions of each of these chords in your head, so there is no to need for these pictures as a crutch.

How to Draw Your Own 7-Pointed Star

The best way to internalize this stuff is to draw it for your self. This makes what you learn "sticky", or harder to forget. You will do this 12 times, or once for each key. By then you should have it down pretty well.

Draw the 7 Points and the Yin Yang

Start by drawing a 7-pointed star like so:

Number the Points

Add the Roman numerals I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII onto each point, starting with the second point on the right, and going counter-clockwise skipping every other point, like so:

Add Key Names and Base Chord Names

Now that we have a generic pointed star, we need to make it key-specific. In the Yang (blue) space, label the name of the major key, and in the yin (red) space, label the name of the parallel minor key. Then, list the names of the base chords of the harmonic scale, corresponding to the key signature in the yin/yang.

Adding Substitute Chords

In the chart below, we list each of those degrees with a Roman numeral (I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII), which is a very practical short hand for the chord that should be memorized. Here we will add colors to help in the memorization. Blue is major, Red is minor, and Violet is Diminished.

The table to the right of each star is a list of the common chord names and popular substitutes for each chord. These substitute chords will allow you to inject more color and variety into their playing, while still remaining mostly diatonic.

Key of C Major / A Minor

	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII
	C	Dm	Em	F	G	Am	Bo7
	CM7	Dm7	Em7	FM7	G7	Am7	Bm/A5
	C6		E7	F6

Exercises:

Your homework is to construct a table like the one above for each of the 12 keys. Namely, C/Am, Db/Bbm, D/Bm, Eb/Cm, E/C#m, F/Dm, Gb/Ebm, G/Em, Ab/Fm, A/F#m, Bb/Gm, B/G#m. The answers to your homework assignment are on the next page, but we encourage you not to print that page, since it will rob you of the opportunity of constructing it for yourself, which will lengthen the time it takes to learn it and eventually throw it away. A Better way to check your work is to play the chords on your guitar, and if it sounds right... chances are it is right.

There are 3 enharmonic keys (same notes as other keys but use different names), which you can do as extra credit if you would like. These are C#/A#m (same notes as Db/Bbm), F#/D#m (same notes as Gb/Ebm), and Cb/Abm (same notes as B/G#m).