Studio One: The Chord Track & Nashville Numbering

The Chord Selector Wheel.

The Chord track continues to mature, and now lets you use Nashville Numbering.

We’ve followed the development of the Chord track over the years, and have got stuck into it a few times in these workshops. We marvelled at its introduction in version 4, revelled in its appearance in the Show Page in version 5, and admired the quality of the printout on lead sheets and guitar tablature in version 6. In version 7.22, the Chord system gets an additional approach, and I thought that would be a good opportunity to check in with how chords flow through Studio One. This new facet is called Nashville Numbering.

There’s nothing new about Nashville Numbering; it’s a tried and tested way of representing chords that’s terribly useful for session musicians, cover bands and worship environments, where keys can find themselves changed without a moment’s notice. It’s the idea that instead of naming chords in a song by a set key (using C, F and G and so on), you would use a numbering system where the key root major chord would be 1 and the rest would be numbered relative to that. So, in our C, F and G example, they would be 1, 4 and 5. If you’ve had any musical training, those numbers would already be familiar, and you might have even come across them as roman numerals such as I, IV and V.

The fabulous thing about this system is that if someone decides to change the key, you don’t have to print the whole sheet out again, or scribble new letters over your music. All that’s required is that you know a bit about how chords in different keys relate to each other. So if you’re playing in the key of C, then the number 5 chord could be G, but if you’re playing in E, then the 5 chord would be B. In G it would be D, and so on. So, regardless of whatever key you wish to play in, the Nashville Numbered chord sheet will remain the same.

When using major chords, you can simply use the numbers 1 to 7 to represent all the notes in a major scale. Once your chords become more exotic, it can get a little bit more complicated. You can use sharp or flat symbols, which is easy enough, but getting into chord types you have a ‘‑’ for minor, a little ⁷ for dominant 7th, a triangle for major 7th and a circle for diminished. Many of these are outside the realms of a standard alphanumeric keyboard, but what’s important is how Studio One presents and interprets the information.

Striking A Chord

Let’s recap how and where the chord system gets its fingers into Studio One. At the top of the arrange page, along with things like the Marker, Video, Lyric and Arranger tracks, you will find the Chord track. Double‑click (or Ctrl/Cmd‑click) in space and it will create a bar‑sized, resizable box with the chord C written in it. Double‑click the box, and the Chord Selector Wheel will pop up, giving you access to every chord you ever thought of. You can select chords by name, type or interval, or you can click in the keyboard to find the name of any combination of notes you wish to represent. It’s a handy and educational tool.

However, all this adding chords by hand seems a little long‑winded considering that the necessary musical information is probably already in the tracks of your project. Well, Studio One has considered this and gives...