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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 Music 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 Tempo menu slows it down without changing the pitch.

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Consider Him, let Christ thy pattern be

Encouragement For Considering Christ

English656
1
“Consider Him,” let Christ thy pattern be,
And know that He hath apprehended thee
To share His very life, His pow’r divine,
And in the likeness of thy Lord to shine.
2
“Consider Him”; so shalt thou, day by day,
Seek out the lowliest place, and therein stay,
Content to pass away, a thing of nought,
That glory to the Father’s name be brought.
3
Shrink not, O child of God, but fearless go
Down into death with Jesus; thou shalt know
The power of an endless life begin,
With glorious liberty from self and sin.
4
“Consider Him,” and thus thy life shall be
Filled with self-sacrifice and purity;
God will work out in thee the pattern true,
And Christ’s example ever keep in view.
5
“Consider Him,” and as you run the race,
Keep ever upward looking in His face;
And thus transformed, illumined thou shalt be,
And Christ’s own image shall be seen in thee.

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Maria L

Fremont, California, United States

Oct 6, 2026

Praise the Lord! Our Christian life is a life in Christ and a life of Christ in us; our Christian life is the life of Christ lived out in us, allowing Christ to live in us and be expressed through us. Hallelujah 😀

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Un Hermano

Nov 26, 2025

EXPERIENCING, ENJOYING, AND

EXPRESSING CHRIST IN THE EPISTLES

Philippians presents marvelous aspects of Christ for our experience and enjoyment. In chapter 1 Christ is the life for us to live, in chapter 2 Christ is the pattern for us to follow, and in chapter 3 Christ is the goal and the prize for us to pursue. In this message, we will cover chapter 4 where Christ is the secret and the power for us to enjoy.

The Conclusion of the New Testament:

Experiencing, Enjoying, and
Expressing Christ, Chapter 351
Volume 2 (LSM)
____________________________________________

Christ was what we should be. Christ is the pattern. He is the Head, and we are the Body. God has done the most wonderful thing in the universe in mingling Himself with a man, Jesus Christ. But God did not stop there. He is going onward, doing the same thing today. God is mingling Himself with thousands upon thousands of people! Through the past two thousand years He has been doing this, but man has simply not understood. God wants to mingle Himself with us, but we have not cooperated. In these two centuries there have been many Christian teachings, but something has been lacking—the mingling of God with man. Oh, may we realize that in Christ God desires to be our life and our everything, even as He was everything to Christ.

The Four Major Steps of Christ
Chapter 1 CWWL, 1963, vol. 2 (LSM)
______________________________________________

GOD ARRANGING OUR ENVIRONMENT FOR THE SAKE OF OUR GROWTH IN LIFE

Since God’s intention is to bring us into full sonship, we need to grow. There is no doubt that growth comes from inward nourishment, but this nourishment needs the coordination of the outward environment. To this end God arranges our environment, surroundings, and situations in order to bring us through suffering. God knows in which situation and in which environment we can grow well. He is our Father, and everything is under His arrangement. He can do nothing wrong; everything He does for us is excellent and wonderful. To our feeling, what God prepares for us may not seem to be good, but we should care for His arrangement and not for our feelings. Although our environment may seem to be a suffering, it is actually a blessing through God’s sovereign provision. Everything we need for our growth in life has been sovereignly provided by God. Therefore, when pain and suffering come to us, we must not lose our trust in God but tell the enemy, “Satan, you are a liar. I accept this suffering as God’s arrangement. It is a blessing that I may grow into full sonship. ” We all need a proper environment to provide the outward elements that are required for our inward growth in life by the working of the indwelling Spirit.

When unpleasant things happen to us, we may not realize that they come from the hand of our Father for our growth. Because we feel the suffering and do not know how to pray, we groan, and while we are groaning, the Spirit groans in our groaning. We may not know the Lord’s purpose in our groaning, but the Spirit who groans in our groaning knows. This purpose can be uttered not by us but by the Spirit, who intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. The Spirit groans in our groaning in order that we may be fully molded and conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son.

When many saints encounter hardship, they say, “I do not know why this is happening to me. ” These things are happening because the groaning Spirit prayed for them. He knows the purpose of our sufferings, and He prays according to God. Christ is the pattern, and the Spirit prays that everything that happens to us will mold us into the pattern, the image, of the firstborn Son.

Experiencing the Processed, All-inclusive, Life-giving Spirit and Raising Up the Young People and the Children for the Increase of the Church

Chapter 2 CWWL, 1982, vol. 2 (LSM)

_______________________________________________

In addition, all Bible students agree that the book of Philippians is a book on the experience of Christ. There is not another book that deals as much with the experience of Christ. If we read this book carefully, we will see that the first chapter tells us that Christ is life within us so that we may live by Him and live Him out. The second chapter tells us that Christ is the pattern set up for us. The third chapter tells us that Christ is the mark of the goal, and the fourth chapter tells us that Christ is the secret. Such a short book is very profound and prevailing in the experience of Christ.

Preaching the Gospel in the Way of Life

Chapter 11 CWWL, 1965, vol. 1 (LSM)

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Jacinto Villanueva Pante Villanueva Pante

Lima, Peru

Nov 1, 2025

El himno representa el contemplar y seguir el modelo de Cristo, destacando Su humildad, obediencia, sacrificio y transformación gloriosa. Es una meditación poética basada en Hebreos 12:2–3 (“puestos los ojos en Jesús… considerad a aquel que sufrió tal contradicción de pecadores”), que llama al creyente a mirar a Cristo como ejemplo vivo y fuente de transformación interior.

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Ray Wiseman

Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

Aug 26, 2017

This is a marvelous hymn for our hidden life in Him! Recently my wife and I discovered an improvement for singing this hymn...sing it to the tune of "Enter the veil.." This truly is a New Jerusalem hymn.

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Michele

Kissimmee, FL, United States

Jul 28, 2017

Amen!! May we care about Christ and Christ alone.

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Patrick Bradley

Tucker, Ga, United States

Jul 27, 2017

What a wonderful hymn! Every word and each stanza so well spoken and true.

A jewel of a hymn.

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