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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 Tempo menu slows it down without changing the pitch.

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Laboring on Jesus, the good land so real

Experience of Christ As the Good Land

English1168
1
Laboring on Jesus, the good land so real,
Plowing and planting and watering the field.
He yields the produce of reality,
God reaps a harvest of Jesus in me.
 
O Jesus! You’re God’s good land
For me to labor on!
I’ll bit by bit possess You
Until the whole is won!
With Canaan is God’s purpose,
The labor He will bless;
Lord Jesus, here I gain Yourself,
Your Person to possess.
2
Laboring on Jesus! My heart has been set,
Labor’s begun, and I have no regret,
For with my labor God’s sending the rain,
And all my labor on Christ yields much gain.
3
Laboring on Jesus this practical way—
Praying His Word in the spirit each day,
Foll’wing His living anointing within,
Built up with others, the church life to win.
4
Laboring on Jesus yields reality,
Meetings of fullness for all men to see;
There God and man are indeed satisfied,
And there God’s presence cannot be denied.
5
Labor on Jesus to have Him increased!
Then seek God’s dwelling and come to the feast!
There bring and offer your surplus to God,
There eat the riches, rejoice in the Lord!

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Un Hermano

Jan 14, 2026

(2) Walking in Him

----------------

Having received Christ, we should walk in Him. To walk is to live, to act, to behave, and to have our being; it implies everything in our daily living. To walk in Christ is to live, move, act, and have our being in Christ. We should not live, walk, move, act, or have our being in anything other than Christ. Furthermore, to walk in Christ means not to have any substitute for Christ. Because of man’s fall, culture replaces God in man’s life. Man was made for God and needs God to be his life, his enjoyment, and everything to him. But because man lost God, he invented culture as a substitute for God. Now in His economy God has ordained that Christ, His Son, should accomplish redemption, bring man back to God, and then replace all the substitutes with Himself. The various factors and elements of our human life are all replacements for Christ, but the factors and elements that have become substitutes for God must now be replaced by Christ. In order for this to be our experience, we need to walk in Christ. Christ is not only the sphere, the realm, in which we walk, but He is also every factor and element of our human life. To experience Christ in this way is to walk in Him.

We should walk, live, and act in Christ so that we may enjoy His riches, just as the children of Israel lived in the good land and enjoyed all its rich produce. The good land today is Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit (Gal. 3:14), who dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22 ; Rom. 8:16) to be our enjoyment. To walk according to this Spirit (v. 4 ; Gal. 5:16) is the central and crucial point in the New Testament.

In our experience Christ should be the good land in which we live and walk. This should not merely be a doctrine to us. We need to pray, “Lord, I want to live and walk in You. Lord, I ask that You be the good land to me in my experience and that every aspect of my living may be in You. ” To walk in Christ is a way to experience Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:6).

The Conclusion of the
New Testament:
Experiencing, Enjoying,
and Expressing Christ,
Message 354 (LSM)
-----------------------------------

“All things which relate to life and Godliness” in 2 Peter 1:3 are the various aspects of the divine life, typified by the riches of the produce of the good land in the Old Testament. They are the substance of our faith’s substantiation allotted to us by God as our portion for our inheritance. Life is within, enabling us to live, and Godliness is without as the outward expression of the inward life. Life is the inward energy, the inward strength, to bring forth the outward Godliness, which leads to and results in glory.

The Conclusion of the
New Testament:
Experiencing, Enjoying,
and Expressing Christ,
Message 389 (LSM)

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Jack Petrash

Irving, TX, United States

Jun 26, 2024

The Lord's mercies are new every morning! If we will rise early and enjoy Him in the Word and in prayer we will gain Him "bit by bit", express Him in our daily living, and share our enjoyment of Him as the all-inclusive good land in every meeting!

Read more
Maria L

Fremont, CA, United States

Feb 6, 2024

We need to be diligent to labor on Christ, seeking Christ, enjoying Christ and experience Christ in every situation. Hallelujah! We have entered into Christ as the reality of the good land.

Thank you Lord Jesus for we can partake all your riches day by day. Praise the Lord!

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Jim

Ontario, OH, United States

Oct 27, 2023

The Old Testament good land is a picture of Christ. What a picture!

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Caroline D

Arlington, TX, United States

Jul 16, 2021

He yields the produce of reality,

God reaps a harvest of Jesus in me.

Read more
Hymn-Study Group - Johnny, Misty, Janeth, Mercy, Sonny, Hiram, Jovic

Lucena City, Quezon Province, Philippines

Apr 12, 2020

Laboring on Jesus yields reality...

God and man are indeed satisfied = SABBATH REST

This Sabbath rest is Christ as our rest, typified by the good land of Canaan.

We need to labor on Christ by anticipating the dawn and musing upon His word; to experience His grace and power, making us solid "cube" for His building to become God's dwelling place.

Let us enjoy the presence of God and submit to the authority of God to enlarge the habitation of God, the church His home to become His city His kingdom.

Christ with the kingdom will be the rest in a fuller way to the overcoming saints, who will be His co-kings, sharing and enjoying His rest.

Amen.

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Christopher Condon

Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom

Apr 5, 2020

What a precious and timely hymn. The Lord is using the world situation to turn us from the wilderness to the Jordan, so He as our Joshua can lead us into the reality of the good land. We set aside our unbelief, look at Him and let Him lead us into uncharted territory. What a privilege to be alive today.

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Omar Lopez

Pembroke Pines, FL, United States

Jul 26, 2016

Hallelujah, Jesus is our good land, Lord we want to labor on You as the good land.

Read more