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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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Sinners Jesus will receive

Gospel Testimony

English1071
1
Sinners Jesus will receive;
Sound this word of grace to all
Who the heavenly pathway leave,
All who linger, all who fall.
 
Sing it o’er and o’er again;
Christ receiveth sinful men;
Make the message clear and plain:
Christ receiveth sinful men.
2
Come, and He will give you rest;
Trust Him for His word is plain;
He will take the sinfulest;
Christ receiveth sinful men.
3
Now my heart condemns me not,
Pure before the law I stand;
He who cleansed me from all spot,
Satisfied its last demand.
4
Christ receiveth sinful men,
Even me with all my sin;
Purged from every spot and stain,
Glory I shall enter in.

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Steve

Kpong, Ghana

Aug 26, 2025

What a powerful hymn! Christ indeed receive sinners like me. 👍.

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Comfort Akpabio

Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

Oct 10, 2024

It's very soothing and calming to know that Jesus receives you though a sinner.

" Now my heart condemn me not.
Pure before the law I stand.
He wh cleansed me from all spots
Satisfied it last demand.

Whatever is the demand for my salvation Jesus Christ has Satisfied them. Hallelujah.

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Bitrus B Dogara

Lagos, Nigeria

Sep 17, 2023

My first time of hearing this song was on the October 1990 My soul was lifted up. Tears of joy drip out of my eyes.

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Rose

Murphy, Texas, United States

Apr 2, 2023

“Come, and He will give you rest;
Trust Him for His word is plain;
He will take the sinfulest;
Christ receiveth sinful men”
What a blessed assurance. Thank you Jesus!!

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Gifty Tayviah

Accra, Ghana

May 14, 2022

What's better in life than having assurance that Jesus makes you fit for heaven when you come to him. No matter what your past has been, right to this point, Jesus will still welcome you. This Hymn is powerful. I simply love it.

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Ana Lara

Storrs, Connecticut, United States

May 16, 2021

Mrs. Emma Frances Devon, was born at Oxford on September 25, 1827 and was the daughter of Philip Nicolas Shuttleworth, Bishop of Chichester.

Emma was brought up under the influence of “high church” principles which had great influence on her. A few years after her father’s death —which occurred when she was only 17 — Frances Shutterworth was led to meet among those believers gathered together on the first day of the week to remember our Savior’s dying love in “the breaking of bread. ” This came about through attending Bible studies held in the house of a friend, to which she was regularly invited. It was here that she saw for the first time these truths which eventually led her into the path of true discipleship.

When she was 29 years old she married Robert C. L. Bevan, of Lombard Street, who was well known for his benevolence and devotion to the Lord’s work. After years, when writing the biography of her husband, Mrs. Bevan tells the story of how she came to the house of Mr. Bevan, to his Bible readings, which were the means of leading her into “newness of life. “ Then Mrs. Bevan reveals that: “As time passed, I was no more visitor, but at home in his house. ”

In the “Believer’s Hymn Book” the familiar “Midst the darkness, storm and sorrow”’ was originally assigned to the hymn. A more appropriate melody however, exactly suited for the theme of the song in Sankey’s hymn book is “Precious thought my Father knoweth. ” Mrs. Bevan wrote this hymn while living at Princess Kate, London. Some doubt has arisen from time to time as to the real authorship of the hymns of this writer because of the fact that when she was sending the composition forth instead of placing her own name or initials on it, Mrs. Bevan used the initials of the name of the house where the hymn was written. This has confused some of the hymnal editors, because almost twenty of her compositions have different initials on them. For example, the hymn previously mentioned has the initials of P. G. (“Princess Gate, ”)

Frances Bevan wrote a great number of hymns and has published several volumes of poems, but her name in the realm of hymnody is best remembered by her excellent translations from the German. Notably among these is a well-known gospel hymn from Numeister( 1671-1756).

Sinners Jesus will receive;
Sound this word of grace to all
Who the heavenly pathway leave,
All who linger, all who fall.

Mrs. Bevan spent the greater part of her latter years of her life along with her husband at Cannes in the South of France, returning to England during the summer months. When her husband died in 1890, Mrs. Bevan did not visit England again but continued to reside at Cannes in her house, which became the birthplace of many of her hymns, where she passed away on February 13, 1909, at 82 years of age.

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R.Lamech Ogalo

Nairobi, Nyanza, Kenya

Apr 10, 2021

Amen,.....

The proud in heart will surely strive to earn salvation but our title and even fitness for heaven is only found in the righteousness of Christ! What buoys my spirit, Christ receives sinful men like Lamech here, I'm free at last!

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Adetunji

Akure, Ondo, Nigeria

Apr 6, 2021

Glory to God for I am free.

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Abigail

Accra, Tema, Ghana

Jun 13, 2020

Indeed Only Jesus Receives Sinful Men. Even-though He Despises Sin, He Alone Is The Great Physician Of Sin. Hallelujah!

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RH

Long Island, NY, United States

Jun 22, 2018

Christ receiveth sinful men! John 4 is just such an example.

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