Skip to content
hymnal.net
hymnal.net
My Songs

About Numbered Notation

All steps
  1. The numbers are the notes of a scale
  2. “1=C” tells you where to start
  3. Dots make a note higher or lower
  4. How long each note lasts
  5. 0 means rest
  6. Bar lines and the time signature
  7. Curves: ties and slurs
  8. The words sit under the numbers
  9. Repeat signs and 1. 2. endings
  10. Minor keys: “6=A”
  11. Put it together: a line of a hymn
  12. Check yourself
  13. Try it on a hymn

The numbers are the notes of a scale

Numbered notation (jianpu, 简谱) writes a melody as numbers instead of notes on a staff. You do not need to read music: take one small step at a time and press Play on any example to hear it while each number lights up. Sound only starts when you press Play.

Instead of notes on a staff, each note is a number from 1 to 7. They are the seven steps of the scale you already know: do re mi fa sol la ti. After 7 the scale starts again at 1.

The seven numbers with their names. Press Play and say each name as its number lights up.
Sing along: do re mi fa sol, and back down to do.

If you can sing do re mi, you can already sing every number from 1 to 7. Tap or click any number to hear just that note.

“1=C” tells you where to start

At the top left of the sheet you will see something like 1=C. It means the number 1 (do) is the note C, and every other number counts up from there. 1=G means do is G, so the whole tune sits a little higher. Nothing else changes: the same numbers make the same shape, only higher or lower.

1=C: do is C.
1=G: the same numbers, starting higher.

Not sure where C is? On a piano it is the white key just left of the two black keys. Or ignore the letter and start on any note that is comfortable for your voice: the tune only has to keep its shape. The − and + key buttons on a hymn page shift the key for you.

Dots make a note higher or lower

A dot above a number means one octave higher. A dot below means one octave lower. Two dots mean two octaves. No dot is the middle range, where most of a tune lives. The name stays the same; only the height changes.

The same number at three heights: dot below, no dot, dot above.
A tune that climbs: it starts on a low sol and ends on a high do.

How long each note lasts

Tap your foot at a steady pace: each tap is a beat. A plain number lasts one beat, so you sing a new number on every tap. Dashes, lines and dots change that.

A plain number is one beat

Four numbers, four beats: one number for each tap.

A dash holds the note longer

Each dash adds one beat. The 5 lasts two beats and the 3 lasts four.

A line underneath makes it shorter

One line is half a beat, so two underlined numbers share one beat. (Two lines are a quarter of a beat.)

A dot after makes it half as long again

A dot after a number adds half its length. The first 5 lasts a beat and a half, and the short 3 fills the rest of the second beat.

0 means rest

A 0 is silence for one beat. Keep counting and keep tapping, but do not sing. Dashes after a 0 make the silence longer, just as they hold a note longer.

Sing 1 3 5, stay quiet for one beat, then come back down. Rests light up too, so you can feel the pause.

Bar lines and the time signature

Tall lines cut the music into bars, each holding the same number of beats. The two small numbers at the start, like 4/4 or 3/4, say how many: 4/4 is four beats in every bar, 3/4 is three. The first beat of each bar is the strongest, so lean on it a little. A double line with a thick edge marks the end.

4/4: count 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4. The first beat of each bar sounds a little louder.
3/4: count 1 2 3, 1 2 3, the lilt of a waltz.

Curves: ties and slurs

A curve over numbers joins them. If it joins two of the same number, it is a tie: sing the note once and hold it for both. If it joins different numbers, it is a slur: sing them all on one syllable, gliding from one to the next.

A tie: the 5 is sung once and held across the bar line, six beats in all.
A slur: “Him” is sung on two notes, 3 then 2.

The words sit under the numbers

Each number gets one syllable, written right underneath it. A short dash after part of a word means the word carries on under the next number. If a number has nothing under it, it belongs to a curve or a dash: keep singing the syllable you are on.

Read left to right, one syllable for each number: Twin-kle, twin-kle, lit-tle star.

Repeat signs and 1. 2. endings

A bar line with two dots, :|, means go back and sing that part again, from the matching |: sign (or from the start if there is none). Sometimes the repeat has two endings. Sing ending 1. the first time; on the repeat, skip it and sing ending 2. instead.

Play it: you hear the 1. ending, the repeat, then the 2. ending. Watch the highlight jump back.

Minor keys: “6=A”

A song in a minor key, which usually sounds more serious or tender, is labeled like 6=A instead of 1=C. It means the number 6 (la) is the home note, here A. The numbers keep their usual names; the tune simply feels at home on 6 and often ends there. 6=A uses the same notes as 1=C.

It starts and ends on 6 (la), the home note. Listen to the darker colour.

Put it together: a line of a hymn

This is the first line of hymn 8, “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow”, written in numbered notation. Try the slow tempo first, and sing the words as each number lights up.

1=G in 4/4. Three silent beats, then “Praise” on beat 4. The dots under 7, 6 and 5 mean those notes dip one octave lower.

Check yourself

Four quick questions, with no score and no pressure. Tap an answer to see right away why it is right or wrong. You can always try another answer.

Tap the number that is held the longest.

Tap the 5 that is one octave higher than the first 5.

What does a 0 mean?

Under 1=G, which note is the number 1?

Try it on a hymn

You opened this from a hymn that has a Numbered view, so you can try it right now.

  1. Look at the top left of the sheet: the key, such as 1=D, and the time signature, such as 3/4.
  2. Find the first number and sing it. Then follow the numbers from left to right with the words underneath, one syllable for each number. Press Play in the player to hear the recording while you follow.
  3. Letters above the numbers (C, G7) are chords for a guitarist or pianist. Ignore them while you learn the tune.
  4. To be guided, open the Learn tab and press Play. Under Display, set Learn notation to Numbered (or choose Numbered on the Lead Sheet tab first). For hymns that have numbered lines, each line of numbers scrolls into view in time with the recording while a bouncing ball follows the words; other hymns show the piano notation there. The Speed menu slows it down.

Open this guide as its own page

Download limit reached

The tree of life, how sweet the fruit

Experience of Christ As Food and Drink

English1143
1
The tree of life, how sweet the fruit,
With God as life complete.
I once was dead, but now I live,
Was starved, but now I eat.
2
’Twas God that brought me to the tree,
With Christ Himself as meat;
How precious did that tree become
When I began to eat.
3
The Lord Himself is food to me,
He is my life supply;
He will my pure enjoyment be,
None else can satisfy.
4
I freely eat this living tree,
For eating is the way
To put God’s life inside of me,
To live by Him today.

Delete Comment

Delete this comment? This cannot be undone.
Maria L

Fremont, CA, United States

Sep 10, 2026

Praise the Lord! The tree of life is Christ Himself. He came to be our life. In Him was life. He is the vine tree, and we abide in Him. Hallelujah 😀

Read more
Jim Smith

Mansfield, Ohio, United States

Jun 23, 2026

The tune to this song is the one to Amazing Grace. I thought of that song about our redemption and God’s grace that he accomplished once and for all.

This hymn is much deeper bringing us to God for a purpose. We know Him by spiritually eating Him. He is our daily life supply. We can eat Him as our daily supply and live by Him today. This is God’s intention to give us life and give it abundantly .

Read more
Un Hermano

Dec 23, 2025

EATING THE TREE OF LIFE

--------------------------

The Lord needs to bring us into the understanding of the Scriptures in an inner and living way to see what is on His heart. After the creation of man, God presented Himself to man as the tree of life for man to eat. The only thing God desired man to do was to feed on Him, to partake of Him as the tree of life. He wanted man to take Him in as life, to learn how to live, how to exist, by the tree of life. Without eating, a person cannot exist. You may have life, but your life cannot last without your eating. In presenting Himself to man as the tree of life, God’s intention was for man to learn how to live by depending on God, by taking God as his daily supply and as his entire supply. Most of us eat three meals a day for our life supply. We live, exist, by eating. God did not command man to do anything but to eat. Man has to take care of his eating. If he eats in a right way, he will be right. If he eats in a wrong way, he will be wrong. If you eat something of life, you will have life. If you eat something of death, you will have death. The Christian life is not merely a matter of doing or working but a matter of partaking of God as the tree of life. This point was clearly made by the Lord Jesus in John 6 where He said that He was the bread of life (v. 35) and that the one who ate Him would live because of Him (v. 57).

The Tree of Life
Chapter 6 CWWL, 1965, vol. 2
(LSM)

Read more
Un Hermano

Dec 23, 2025

g. Christ as the Tree of Life
Growing on the Two Sides
of the River of Water of Life
--------------------------------

Revelation 22:1 says, “He showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. ” Out of the throne of God and of the Lamb flows the river of water of life, and in this river the tree of life grows as a spreading vine. The river of water of life in the New Jerusalem signifies the consummated Spirit. Eventually, God’s Spirit will be a river. This river of water of life is in the city’s unique spiral street. In the whole city there is only one street. The street with the river spirals down the mountain to reach every part of the city and all its twelve gates. The street is the communication that ministers something to us. This is the ministering communication to water the whole city for the city’s drink. The tree of life, the life-supplying Christ, is a great vine growing on the two sides of the river to nourish the entire city for its food. God’s throne is for His government, the river is for our watering, and the tree of life is for our nourishment. The Triune God governs, serves, waters, and feeds the entire city.

The tree of life signifies God Himself in Christ as the life supply to us (Gen. 2:9 ; John 1:4 ; 14:6). This tree is the embodiment of life. According to the divine revelation, only God Himself is life in the entire universe. This God who is life is absolutely embodied in Christ (Col. 2:9). Christ is the tree of life, and in this tree of life is the full enjoyment of all the riches of life.

In brief, the tree of life in the Bible is a figure of the Triune God embodied in Christ to be the substance of the divine life. This tree is good for man to take and eat (Gen. 2:16 ; John 6:57b) that man may be constituted with God as the constituent of life. Thus, man and God become organically united and live together as one person (15:5 ; Phil. 1:20-21a). Colossians 3:4 says that Christ is our life. Therefore, we need to take Him as our supply, as the substance of the divine life, in which we can be victorious and overcoming, even reigning in His eternal life (Rom. 5:17). Eventually, we will be co-kings with Christ in the thousand-year kingdom (Rev. 3:21 ; 20:4).

The Conclusion of the
New Testament: Experiencing,
Enjoying, and Expressing Christ,
Message 433 (LSM)

Read more
Mawududzi

Ho, Battor, Ghana

Jul 13, 2025

The Lord himself is food to me
He is my life supply
Lord Jesus we thank you

Read more
Deborah

Round Rock, TX, United States

Sep 4, 2022

The Lord Himself is food to me,
He is my life supply;
He will my pure enjoyment be,
None else can satisfy.

Read more
Bingxin Khoo

Singapore

May 6, 2022

Thank you Lord I do not have to look at my crippled feet. I can freely eat You as the living tree!

Read more
Enoch

Auckland, New Zealand

Jan 4, 2022

Thank you Lord that we can simply eat of this tree freely!

Read more
Ian

Auckland, New Zealand

Jan 3, 2022

Eating is the way!

Read more
Joseph Chong

Auckland, New Zealand

Jan 3, 2022

The Lord is for eating and enjoying!

Read more