Free Electric Guitar Lessons Using Nashville Numbering System
Most beginners learn chord shapes one at a time and never find out how those shapes relate to each other. The Nashville Number System fixes that. Instead of memorizing dozens of names, you learn seven numbers that work in any key, and suddenly a song you have never heard becomes something you can follow.
These video lessons come straight out of Thadeus Beginning Electric Lead Guitar Featuring the Nashville Numbering System. In them I sit down with Thadeus and walk through the chords one number at a time, then put them together into a real progression over a backing track. Every example on this page is played in the key of A, so the 1 chord is A, the 4 chord is D, the 5 chord is E, and the 6 minor is F sharp minor. Everything here is free and there is nothing to sign up for. Grab your guitar and start with the 1 chord.
How to Play the 1 Chord
The 1 chord is where every song in a key begins and ends. It is home. It names the key you are playing in, so when the 1 chord is A you are in the key of A, and every other number on this page is measured from that one starting point.
How to Play the 4 Chord
In the Nashville Number System every chord in a key gets a number from 1 through 7. The 1 chord is home base, the chord the song keeps returning to. The 4 chord is built on the fourth note of the scale and it is one of the three chords doing most of the work in country, rock, blues, and worship music.
How to Play the 5 Chord
If the 1 chord is home and the 4 chord is the departure, the 5 chord is the pull back home. It creates tension. Your ear hears a 5 chord and expects the 1 to follow, which is why songwriters put it right before the end of a phrase or a chorus.
Learning the 6 Minor Chord
Six of the seven chords in a major key follow a fixed pattern. The 1, the 4, and the 5 are major. The 2, the 3, and the 6 are minor. That pattern holds in every key, which is another reason the number system saves you so much memorization.
What a Chord Progression Is and How 1 5 6 4 Works
A chord progression is just an order. You take the chords in a key and decide which one comes next. What makes progressions powerful is that a small number of them show up again and again across decades of music, so learning one gives you a key that fits a lot of doors.
Learn How to Ascend a Major Scale Over the 1 Chord in the 1st Position
Play the major scale from the root of the 1 chord and you have the notes for every chord in the key. Here is what that looks like on the neck.
Learn How to Play the Arpeggios Using the 1, 5, 6, and 4 Chords
Pick the notes one at a time instead of strumming them together. Same four chords, played as a melody.
Where to Go Next
These lessons cover a small slice of what is in the book. Thadeus Beginning Electric Lead Guitar Featuring the Nashville Numbering System takes the same approach across the full set of numbers, with diagrams and exercises for each one, and it is written for someone starting from zero.
Contact Casey
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