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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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When we survey the wondrous cross (Alternate Tune)

Praise of the Lord His Suffering

English101b
1
When we survey the wondrous cross
On which the Lord of glory died,
Our richest gain we count but loss,
And pour contempt on all our pride.
2
Our God forbid that we should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, our Lord;
All the vain things that charm us most,
We’d sacrifice them to His blood.
3
There from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flowed mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
4
His dying crimson, from His head
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
To all the world then am I dead,
And all the world is dead to me.
5
Were the whole realm of nature ours,
That were an offering far too small;
Love that transcends our highest pow’rs,
Demands our heart, our life, our all.

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James Smith

Mansfield, Ohio, United States

Mar 2, 2026

This hymn truly inspires iove and goes well with my recent realization.

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

So I cling to the cross,
Till I can count all things lost.
I would gain Him at any cost,
that others may see His love
and set their mind on Him above.
He truly sets my spirit free
As I experience Him on that tree.
At the end of my life,
I want this to be my testimony,
that I truly Love Thee

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Ana Lara

Storrs, Connecticut, United States

Oct 16, 2021

Sir Isaac Watts was born in Southhampton England, in 1674. At the age of 18 he became so irritated at the untuneful hymns sung at the Nonconformist meetings that he complained bitterly to his father. He was challenged by Dr. Wayland to write a few hymns as well as by his father when he told young Isaac, “Make some yourself then. ” Isaac took his father at his word and went on to write the hymn—

Behold the Glorious Lamb.

Once a tune was added, it pleased the worshippers greatly—and that was the beginning of Isaac Watts’ career as a hymnist.

The young writer was learning Latin at age 5, Greek at 9, French at 11, and Hebrew at 13. From the day he wrote his first hymn, he continued to write hymns from his home church and by the time he was 22, he had written 110, and in the next two years 144 more besides preparing himself for the ministry. No. 7 in the edition of the first 110, is found his most precious and well-known hymn—When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.

Watts was ordained pastor of an Independent Church at Mark Lane London in 1702, but repeated illness broke up his ministry, and he retired an invalid, to the beautiful home of Sir Thomas Abney at Theobaldo. He had firstly been invited to spend a week but ended up spending the rest of his life—36 years.

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Steve Miller

Detroit, Michigan, United States

Mar 28, 2016

We sang this hymn yesterday morning at church. A 92-year old brother who is an English professor shared that in stanza 3 "sorrow and love" flowed mingled down and in the next line "love and sorrow" met. The order is reversed to give both "sorrow" and "love" equal emphasis. This device is used in Bible poetry also.

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IrisCrystal Seok

South Korea

Dec 6, 2013

While it was considered as a clearly-spotted appreciation that in brother Witness Lee’s message of ‘Experience of Life’, the lyric of this hymn had been cited by him and related to one of the genuine ‘personal’ Christian experience in ‘consecration’, it was also regarded as a well-spotted adaptation that the original singular pronoun in the previous lyric, where each redeemed saint’s consecration based on each one's revelation was achieved as personal and individual experience in a Christian journey, had been altered to plural one from the perspective of corporate one meal offering in the Lord’s table and in bird’s eye view in God’s economy for the Body of Christ.

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Frank Pytel

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Dec 1, 2013

This is a precious hymn to me, in that, it relates to my initial consecration to my Savior who poured out HIS all (2 Cor. 8:9)! I was first introduced to this hymn in a book by Witness Lee on consecration as an experience of life. He relates this hymn in the book in the singular pronoun, which I too prefer, as one personally coming into direct touch with the crucified Savior and His love and the response it brings. This contact with HIM and HIS love demanded my all. If this hymn is sung with others, may each one of us in such a gathering have an ear to hear what the Spirit is speaking to unveil the crucified Savior in His love! Yet as I am alone with HIM considering and singing this hymn there is always a response to HIS constraining Love!

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John Cowne

Australia, NSW

Apr 6, 2012

I agree with the plural pronoun changes when played in church. I'm singing 'with' my brothers and sisters in Christ.The 'message' we are sending (church is Christians TOGETHER) of our common faith in and love for Jesus is FAR MORE important than to sticking to a misguided tradition. Thank you for making the song biblically and emotionally usable at church.

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Paul Zesewitz

Richfield Spgs, New York, United States

Apr 21, 2011

This is doubtless the most beautiful hymn ever written in the English language, so why have you altered the lyrics? Dr. Watts wrote this hymn out of PERSONAL experience, and you have made it 'corporate' by changing the pronouns. Was that really necessary?

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Robert DeJohn

Merlin, Oregon, United States

Feb 25, 2010

This is a spiritual school that asks for us to be honest with who we are. When I can see the truth of this I am reminded of this hymn. I have also studied Gregorian Chant and can hear the simplicity of the tune in that regard.

I would really like to have a copy of the music that is playing.

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