Master THE NUMBERS SYSTEM (in under 10 minutes!)

today i'm gonna be talking about something that i get a gazillion questions about and let's be honest if you don't know what this is um you're playing at it right this is like one of the fundamental um things you've got to know as a musician as a bass player because it just it's the the fundamental foundations of what we play all kind of linking to this system that i'm going to be talking about today let's let me move this back a little bit uh so you can see all of me it's got wires everywhere if i fall off cameras because i'm just tripping myself up with all these all these cables [Music] your scales your chord tones the knowledge all ties into the number system if you don't know it you're going to be at a crazy disadvantage so in this video i'm going to tell you exactly what the number system is and how it's going to help you as well like composing and ear training and understanding of bass lines and the whole full nine yards i should also add as well this is not the nashville number system the number system has it's existed for years the nashville number system was uh introduced i think in the 50s and 60s and really took the number system and put it onto paper it was a very specific way of notating the number system okay so we all know the major scale right we've been singing it since we were knee-high to grasshopper doremi farsolatido that is a c major scale can you guys see that so now let's number all of the notes what you may or may not know is that each of the notes of any major scale has a chord built from it okay and no matter what key it's in the sequence the pattern of notes or pattern of chords is always the same right it's always major so with a major i'm going to use a triangle okay so it's always major minor minor major major minor and this little monkey here is actually a minor seven flat five okay so it's always major minor minor major major minor minor seven flat five that always stays the same okay and this is why the number system is so awesome because now we know in the key of c major that chord one is a c major and chord two is a d minor chord three is a e minor chord f chord four etc etc so if i said to you guys let's write a one six two five in the key of c major you could do that now right so it's a c major okay now six so one six so one two three four five six is a minor so a minor a one six two chord two is a d minor and chord five one six two five is a g major okay now there might be a few of you out there that thinking well actually chord five is a g dominant seven that is true but we're not adding the seventh in right now okay so that is a one six two five in the key of c major this means that i can turn up a jam session and somebody says to me hey like the intro of this song is like one six two five in the key of c major okay one six two five one six two five okay one six two five one six two five one six two five one oh we could play the chords okay one six two five one okay so that's why it's cool it's a communication method that just gets rid of all the crap what happens if it was in the key of f that is totally fine because i as i said that sequence of chords that sequence here always stays the same so let's write in the f so now we want a one six two five in the key of f one chord is it f major six chord is a d minor yeah d d minor six two chord what is it guys it's a g minor g minor and five chord in this case is c right and it would be a c dominant seven but that's for another time okay so we've got a one six two five we've got a one six two five okay that's why this system is so cool now let's make these seventh chords okay so let's make it a major seven a minus seven minus seven major seven that's gonna be a major but it's notated like that just a seven minus seven and then minus seven flat five okay so now we've just you know actually written down the full chords okay so major seven minor seven etcetera etcetera in this example i'm going to show you how composing is ridiculously easy when it comes to writing out chords check this out we can write any of these chords in any order and they're going to sound wicked right so let's do it in the key of oh d d let's okay so d [Music] and this is just proof in the pudding that uh you can compose using these this this number system and and make things super easy right so let's do a one three i don't know like a one three one three six five okay so one this is totally off the top of my head okay i want you guys to experiment with this at home it's super fun five okay so one three six five uh uh six four six i'm see i'm not even thinking about this okay so a7 right so i'm gonna play the root movement first of this progression right two three four one [Music] e minor [Music] what can i say sounds like a great song to be now let's play the actual chords and hear what it sounds like okay two three four b minor a7 back to b minor g7 [Music] so there i just played the chords around it sounds fine i didn't even think about anything to do with relationships or anything like that to do with the chords i literally just filled in the blanks now guys i want you to go and do the same thing take a take this secret sequence major minor minor major dominant minor seven minus seven flat five okay write in a scale and then pick some random numbers okay obviously try and make it like four or eight bars just to keep some kind of continuity to it and then just play the chords or play the bass line it's gonna sound wicked and now next time you turn up on a gig and somebody's like what's up uh we'll do a one four five in the key of a flat you'll think oh well i know what a 145 is you'll understand that terminology also when you're thinking about scales and modes scales and modes fit into this like unfortunately this isn't long enough to obviously fit all of this stuff in because i will be here for a long time if you are an academy member make sure you check out the base fundamentals course it's in the course library it's got all of this in fact it's got about an hour of it and it also you know goes into how to create bass lines with it adding roots fifths thirds and all of those shenanigans so check that out if you're not a member of scottsbasslessons.com go check that out it's at scottsbasslessons.com we're the ultimate online based school and you can you know we've got the largest course library online course library of base education in the world we've got a faculty that will melt your face they're so cool um go to scottsbasscenter.com check it out guys if you're on youtube as well make sure you subscribe being to the channel and and leave a comment as well let me know what other kind of sort of like theory functional harmony that you'd that you're missing out on because i'd love to i'd love to you know hook you up with it anyway take it easy guys and i will see you in the shed

Channel: Scott's Bass Lessons

Views: 547,990

Keywords: scott devine, bass lessons, bass guitar, soloing, funk, cover, groove, jazz, slap, tuition, masterclass, beginner, beginners, clinic

Id: Ib8vGsLC6WE

Length: 9min 58sec (598 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2017