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About Numbered Notation

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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Safe in the arms of Jesus

Comfort in Trials By the Lord’s Arms

English679
1
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o’ershaded,
Sweetly my soul doth rest.
Hark! ’tis a song of heaven
Borne in the sweetest voice,
Echoed by saints in spirit,
Making my heart rejoice.
 
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o’ershaded,
Sweetly my soul doth rest.
2
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe from corroding care,
Safe from the world’s temptations,
Sin cannot harm me there.
Free from the blight of sorrow,
Free from my doubts and fears;
Only a few more trials,
Only a few more tears.
3
Jesus, my heart’s dear Refuge,
Jesus has died for me;
Firm on the Rock of Ages
Ever my trust shall be.
Here let me wait with patience,
Wait till the night is o’er,
Wait till I see the morning
Break on the golden shore.

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Okafor Fidelis J

Bonny Island, Rivers, Nigeria

Feb 22, 2026

I am here for the first time. I love this so much, seeing where old powerful hymns like these exist.

Please l want you to include voice to it, or link me to the place where both instruments and voice were use. I will be glad to see that done for. Thanks a lot and keep promoting God's business.

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Sunny Olatunji

Lagos, Nigeria

Dec 2, 2025

Comfort in trials - by the LORD'S arms

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Ana Lara

Storrs, Connecticut, United States

Jul 18, 2023

This hymn is one of many songs where Fanny Crosby and William Howard Doanne collaborated together. Fanny would write, and William would compose. After one of her main collaborators, William Bradbury, died in 1868, she met William Howard Doanne , a wealthy, businessman, inventor, and Christian. Doanne knew about Fanny’s prolific hymn writing, and traveled from his home in Cincinnati to her home in New York City where they met for the first time. Theirs became a long and productive friendship; she a lyricist, and he a composer. There was such respect and professionalism between them that he referred to her as “Mrs. Crosby“ and she to him as “Mr. Doanne.”

One of the first hymn they produced together was “Pass me not, oh, gentle, Savior”. Doanne had asked Fanny to write a hymn containing these words. One day, she heard an inmate, cry out during one of her prison ministries, “good Lord, do not pass me by!” This inspired her to write the lyrics to William’s requested hymn. He then composed the tune, and the hymn was sung later at the prison where the inmate was being housed. The song touched some prisoners so much that they gave their lives to Christ. Fanny was so impressed by this event, that she fainted, and had to be carried out.

“Passed me not“ was written with the words first, and the melody later. This wasn’t always the case, “safe in the arms of Jesus“ is an example of this. It was later in that same year, that William visited Fanny‘s home and shared a tune he composed for the purpose of her writing the text to it. He hummed the melody. As soon as she heard it, she clapped her hands and exclaimed, “safe, in the arms of Jesus!” She left the parlor and went to another room in the house, prayed for inspiration, and half an hour later, she had written the entire poem. It is in a similar way that she wrote, “Blessed assurance.“

Phoebe Knapp recounts: Safe in the arms was an instant hit, after, including it in a hymn book published by Biglow and Main, the nation’s foremost hymnal publisher, it was sung all over the country. Fanny, especially liked it as it reminded her of her own relatives who had gone to be with the Lord, including her baby, who had died years earlier.

A year later, Fanny was visiting William at his home. She was going to speak to the working-men in Cincinnati. During her speaking, she sensed that someone in the audience needed salvation, and so she pleaded, if there was a boy among the crowd who had wondered away from his mother’s teaching, to come to her afterward. Soon after her plea, a young man of 18 came and asked her if she referred to him. He told Fanny that before his mother died, he promised to meet her in heaven, but didn’t think he could based on his sinful living. Fanny prayed over him and she said, “he finally arose with a new light in his eyes, and exclaimed in triumph, ‘now I can meet my mother in heaven for now I have found her God!’”

Doanne had asked Fanny to write a hymn on “rescue the perishing” to be used for mission’s work. That night, she wrote the hymn with that title keeping in mind the young 18-year-old boy that had been saved. Once it was published, it became the theme song for mission workers around the country. Crosby and Doanne worked together on over 1000 hymns. She wrote 5959 hymns for Biglow and Main in her 47 years with them.

Both Fanny and William passed away within months of each other in 1915. Fanny was 12 years his senior.

Sisters in Song

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Merin Eby

Majaz 1, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Apr 2, 2023

This song was written by Fanny Crosby when she lost her infant baby. Praise God for such an amazing woman of faith.

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Ayodeji Adigun

Gaborone, Botswana

Jan 27, 2022

Myself and my youngest brother at first just fell in love with the tune of this very hymn. Because we were so young that we couldn't really interpret the heavenly inspirational words said in the hymn. Meanwhile, our mother of blessed memory, loved the hymn so much that she must select it to be sung at least a night in every single week. It obviously her favorite. But as we grew, we got to know and feel the powerful words mentioned therein. Those words are very heavy that it blows my head off each time I try to sing it. God bless the writer... He must be singing with the angels in heaven.... Hallelujah 🙌🙌🙌

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John Birney Stewart.

Kilmacrennan, Co Donegal, Ireland

Jan 11, 2022

Safe in the arms of Jesus, what a beautiful Hyme wrote by Fanny J Crosby, the words are so true, in these times we all need a Saviour, thank You Lord for all your Blessings in you we put our trust, thank you for the cross of Calvary and for our Salvation.

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Heidi

Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States

May 21, 2021

There is a place of quiet rest,

Near to the heart of God!

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Letta Dihemo

Rustenburg, North West, South Africa

Dec 9, 2020

Amazing

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Ugo Mba

Cotonou, Benin

Nov 29, 2020

No other place is safe except with Jesus Christ. He's my refuge and I'm glad He's mine always by my side. I have no fears

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Sonalli Daniels

Carolina, Puerto Rico

Nov 28, 2020

🙌🏼 Safe in His arms

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8:37-39‬ ‭KJV‬‬

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