Standard & Nashville Chord Symbols.
Designed for Jazz Instrumentalists.
Guitar, String Bass, Electric Bass Guitar, Piano, Banjo, Susi, Euphonium,
Trumpet, Trombone, Saxaphone etc.
It doesnt matter what key or instrument, you can still Jazz.
Nashville coded chord layouts calculated & formatted by Peter E.C.Wasmuth.
The relationship between a chord symbol presented sequence and a numeric
symbol presented sequence is shown as follows :-
A blues chord sequence in the key of Eb presented as standard chord
symbols.
|| Eb Db7 C9 C7 | F7 . B9+5 Bb9 | F7 . B9+5 Bb9 | Eb . Bb9 . ||
The same Eb chord sequence presented as nashville chord symbols.
|| 1 b77 69 67 | 27 . b69+5 59 | 27 . b69+5 59 | 1 . 59 . ||
The relationship of the conversion between Standard & Nashville
is identified in the following chart showing the scale of Eb major.
Eb F G Ab Bb C D Eb
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
The above numerical sequence shows the interval position of the note
in the scale.
Now identify the same progression but in the scale of Gmajor.
G A B C D E F# G
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
The same blues chord sequence but now in the key of G major.
| G F7 E9 E7 | A7 . Eb9+5 D9 | A7 . Eb9+5 D9 | G . D9 . |
The G chord sequence in numeric format.
| 1 b77 69 67 | 27 . b69+5 59 | 27 . b69+5 59 | 1 . 59 . |
Both nashville sequences are identical. This means that once the nashville
chord sequence has been identified for a particular piece of music,
that music may be performed in any key and by any instrument of any
pitch providing the root chord is identified as numeric symbol 1 for
that instrument and piece of music.
Concert - Instrument - Chord #1 - Instrument Key
Bb - Double Bass - Bb - Bb
Bb - Trumpet - C - C
Eb - Alto Sax - G - G
How to read the numeric symbols.
The structure of a numeric chord symbol is as follows :-
There is an Optional Prefix,
followed by a Mandatory Interval,
followed by an Optional Suffix,
followed by Optional Modifier.
Optional Prefix : b
Mandatory Interval : 1 2 3 4 5 6
7
Optional Suffix : m 7 9 11 13 ^7
^9
Optional Modifier : + o +5 o5
From the above here are some of the numeric chord symbols that could
be constructed :-
2 b2 27 b27 b2^7 2+5 b2+5
b27+5
A study of the previous example of a chord progression in Eb shows
that the root chord (chord #1) is in fact Eb.
This is also the first chord in the first bar of the blues sequence.
The second chord Db7 is shown as 'b77' in the numeric sequence.
As the interval between numbers is based on the major scale then we
can see from the scale chart in Eb that Db does not fall on an actual
number, but is between interval '6' and '7' or between C and D.
Therefor, as there is a whole tone between the 6th and the 7th intervals
of a major scale, its position is either a sharp 6th or a flat 7th.
Db being a semi-tone down on D is therefor written as 'b7'.
The suffix '7' in 'b77' identifies the chord as a dominant 7th chord.
The numeric chord 'b77' interpreted into the key of G would result
in the chord of F7.
This is because the 7th interval of the scale of G is F# and the
numeric prefix is for this to be flat 'b', which results in a chord
of F and because of the suffix '7', it is also a dominant 7th.
Most of the optional suffix and modifiers are in common use in standard
chord symbol writing ie.
^7 = major 7th
m7 = minor 7th
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