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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.

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In a low dungeon, hope we had none

Assurance and Joy of Salvation Reconciled to God

English1131
1
In a low dungeon, hope we had none;
Tried to believe, but faith didn’t come;
God, our sky clearing, Jesus appearing,
We by God were transfused!
We by God were transfused!
 
Propitiation made by the blood,
Jesus’ redemption bought us for God!
No condemnation, justification!
We have peace toward God!
We have peace toward God!
2
Born into Adam, dying we were;
We had a sickness no one could cure.
God, His Son sending, old Adam ending;
He is dead, we are free!
He is dead, we are free!
3
Now we’re rejoicing, standing in grace,
Oh hallelujah! Sin is erased!
God, in us flowing, in our hearts growing,
We are saved in His life!
We are saved in His life!

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Frank Scavo

Irvine, CA, United States

Nov 3, 2025

I am so glad to see this song preserved here. I wrote it during the week-long conference on the book of Romans. As a young Christian, in one meeting, I heard a word I was not familiar with: propitiation. So, I thought, let's make a song about these big words in Romans and their definitions: propitiation, redemption, justification, and salvation in God's life.

One question I still have, though. As I remember, I took this tune from Young Life meetings, but I cannot remember what it is. I see the tune is not credited here or on any other source. If anyone knows who wrote this tune, I'd love to know.

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Un Hermano

Oct 3, 2025

BACK TO THE TREE OF LIFE

Nevertheless, we need to see even more. Let us return to the first chapter of Genesis once again.

According to Genesis 1 , man was not only created by God but also for God and to God. Man was created to God that he might express God’s image and exercise God’s dominion for the building up of His kingdom. Man was created to God for such a high purpose. In Genesis 2 we see that God was represented by the tree of life, indicating that the man created to God should continually eat of this tree. Man needed to come to God, contact God, and have God transfused and infused into him. However, man failed to do this, going to the wrong source, the tree of knowledge. Thus, the man who was made to God turned away from God. This is the accurate meaning of the fall of man.

God appeared to call Abraham out of this fallen condition, meaning that God wanted to bring man back to Himself. When God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, He did not tell him where to go, because God’s intention was to bring him back to Himself. Man had to return to God in order that God might transfuse Himself into him.

In calling Abraham out of Ur, God was bringing him back to the tree of life. The principle of the tree of life is dependence; the principle of the tree of knowledge is independence. To come to the tree of life means to depend upon God; to turn to the tree of knowledge means to forsake God. Every day and every hour we need to depend upon God as our life. We can never stay away from God as our life. Therefore, Abraham was brought back to God as the tree of life. When God appeared to him, that was also the appearing of the tree of life. As Abraham spent time in the presence of God, he enjoyed the tree of life. Every time this happened, God’s essence was transfused into him. In this way God trained Abraham to be totally transfused, infused, and permeated with God and no longer to act by himself. This was not an easy lesson for Abraham to learn.

We are undergoing the same training today. God has called us out of our fallen condition back to Himself as the tree of life. Now we are under His transfusion, infusion, and saturation. We must not do anything by ourselves. Our self must be terminated. The old man must be cut off and buried that God may be everything to us. Then we can say in reality, “It is no longer I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God” ( Gal. 2:20 ). This is the life of Abraham. As Abraham’s descendants we are the same as he. We walk in his believing footsteps and are under God’s saturating work.

Life-study of Romans

Message 8 (LSM)

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Un Hermano

Oct 3, 2025

ISRAEL UNDER SLAVERY

Chapter one of Exodus is a detailed record of the activities of God’s people in their situation of death in Egypt. Forced to labor as slaves of Pharaoh, they were already in death and yet they were daily being killed. It may sound strange to say that the dead are being killed, but this is true in spiritual experience. Although the worldly people are already spiritually dead, they are continuously being killed. The situation among the worldly people today, like that among God’s people in Exodus 1 , is characterized by slavery and death. People are firstly enslaved by the world and then they are deadened and killed by it. People may think that human culture is progressing in a positive way, but in the eyes of God there is more slavery and death on earth today than ever before. Before we came to Christ and were saved, we also were enslaved and deadened. Furthermore, before we came into the church life in the Lord’s recovery, many of us continued to be enslaved and deadened, even after we had been saved. We all need to be on the alert lest we be enslaved and deadened once more.

The book of Genesis has a good beginning but ends with a poor situation, whereas Exodus begins with a poor situation but ends gloriously. We have pointed out that Genesis begins with God’s creation but ends with a dead man in a coffin in Egypt. Exodus, on the contrary, opens with a picture of God’s people being enslaved and in death, but concludes with the ark in the tabernacle that is filled with the glory of God. What a tremendous difference between the end of Genesis and the end of Exodus! Where do you prefer to be—in a coffin in Egypt or with the ark in the tabernacle that is filled with God’s glory?

LIFE-STUDY OF EXODUS

Message 2 (LSM)

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Brian

Riverside, CA, United States

Jul 19, 2025

Hallelujah sin is erased! God in us flowing, in our hearts growing, we are saved in His life! We are saved!!!!

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Kelly Akeyuba

Nairobi, Kenya

Jul 22, 2023

He's alive in me

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Wong

Utah, United States

Oct 23, 2022

耶穌流寶血，成就平息；
不再有定罪，因信稱義。
我今歸與神，因救贖永定；
藉著耶穌基督，對神有了和平！

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Anonymous

Lubbock, Texas, United States

Oct 16, 2022

No condemnation, justification!
We have peace toward God!
Hallelujah! Thank you Lord for your blood!

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Jessica Bussell

Denton, Texas, United States

Oct 9, 2022

We have peace toward God! Hallelujah!

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Kenya Neal

Gainesville, FL, United States

Sep 1, 2022

We have peace toward God! Hallelujah! This song is so sweet! The enemy has been really attacking me lately, lying, saying that I don’t but praise God! We have peace toward God! Propitiation made by His blood! Jesus’ redemption bought us for God. No condemnation, JUSTIFICATION! We have peace toward God! We don’t have to do anything or try to believe because it’s already been done! Christ is our faith! Christ is our redeemer! Christ is our everything!

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Christopher Burk

Seattle, Washington, United States

Jul 31, 2022

Now we’re rejoicing, standing in grace, Oh hallelujah! Sin is erased!

Enjoying this in Spokane! Amen!

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