Nashville numbering system

Evo

viz said:

Damn me, why am I pressing refresh every 5 seconds on this thread? PDR I agree with you here, and we're going a bit off-topic here, but I'd also like to say to everyone, the VERY DEFINITION of Dorian is that it has a minor 1 and a major 4. That is precisely and exclusively Dorian's harmony - that’s what enables its raised 6th. So, everyone, you can only ever play Dorian if the 4 is major, and, conversely, if you ever play a minor piece with a major 4, it has to be Dorian (normally ). And Lydian has a major 1 and major 2.



Cheers all, I'm loving my walk.

I think part of the debate comes when you consider that at this point the Nashville numbering system becomes redundant. 

You’re just transcribing the song. 

The ethos behind the Nashville numbering system is that it’s an easier and more efficient way to get a song across than a “proper” chart. If you’re MDing a band that don’t know the changes, yelling “To the 4 chord!” is infinitely preferable to shouting “modulate to the relative minor and we’re on the 6 chord” (for example). 

The tonic may indeed trump all, but you need to know the song in order to know for certain where the tonic is. Especially if the damn thing keeps moving.