Skip to content
hymnal.net
hymnal.net
My Songs

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.

Open this guide as its own page

Download limit reached

There is a place of quiet rest

Longings For Fellowship with Christ

English375
1
There is a place of quiet rest,
Near to the heart of God,
A place where sin cannot molest,
Near to the heart of God.
 
O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us, who wait before Thee,
Near to the heart of God.
2
There is a place of comfort sweet,
Near to the heart of God,
A place where we our Savior meet,
Near to the heart of God.
3
There is a place of full release,
Near to the heart of God,
A place where all is joy and peace,
Near to the heart of God.

Delete Comment

Delete this comment? This cannot be undone.
Susan Jamieson

Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom

Sep 11, 2025

I’ve been reading Hebrews 4 this morning and thinking about the inheritance which so many miss. Yes they have peace through reconciliation and salvation but there is so much more. As I prepare to pray into this, this old hymn came to mind- so long since heard I had to look up words and music. I think it speaks into that peace. My thoughts on this can be found on my daily reflection on Reading Group . St Andrews Clumboor.

Read more
Marjorie

Wynyarcd, Tasmanian, Australia

Sep 6, 2025

This song woke me early this morning a song God given the comfort much needed

Read more
Robert Ngeno

Kenya

Sep 15, 2024

In this world there are a lot of unrest and turmoil every now and then be thanks be to God God for providing us a solitude place in His heart to have a rest. All praises be to God 🙏

Matthew 11:28

Read more
Ana Lara

Storrs, Connecticut, United States

Mar 17, 2024

This hymn was born out of tragic circumstances. Cleland McAfee (1866-1944) suffered the loss of two infant nieces to diphtheria in 1903.

McAfee was a preacher and director of the campus Presbyterian Church at College Park, Parkville, Missouri. His daughter described the account in her book, “Near to the Heart of God.” Hymnologist William J. Reynolds, quotes the account:

“The family and town were stricken with grief. My father often told us how he sat long and late, thinking of what could be said in word and song on the coming Sunday… So he wrote the little song. The choir learned it at the regular Saturday night rehearsal, and afterward they went to Howard McAfee’s home and sang it as they stood under the sky, outside the darkened, quarantined house. It was sung again on Sunday morning at the communion service… The hymn was first included in the Choir Leader, October, 1903.”

UM Hymnal editor, the Reverend Carlton R. Young, suggest that the “stanzas affirm that near to God‘s heart is a meeting place with the Savior, a place of ‘quiet rest,’ ‘comfort,’ ‘full release,’ and ‘joy and peace.’ The refrain petitions Jesus, to sustain us near to God‘s heart.“

A characteristic of gospel hymns of this era, especially those that employ an intimate language to express the relationship between the believer and God, is to repeat a short phrase several times, allowing the message to burrow deeper into the heart of the singer and to plant a little kernel of truth. In this case, the repeated phrase is “nearer to the heart of God,” which appears 12 times if all stanzas are sung and the refrain repeated after each stanza.

Uncharacteristic of gospel hymns, however, is that this hymn describes this “place of rest” in the third person. Almost invariably, other hymn writers from this era in the United States and Great Britain express the relationship to God in the first person.

The unpretentious language is descriptive in the stanzas—painting a vivid picture

(hypotyposis) of either life after death or a place where we can meet God face-to-face in prayer. The refrain finds its highest musical pitch on the word “Jesus“— calling upon the “Redeemer“ to “hold us….Near to the heart of God.“

Cleland Boyd McAfee was a native of Missouri, graduating from Park College. He returned to his alma mater, following study at Union Theological Seminary, New York, to teach and pastor the campus church, as well as direct its choir.

After serving congregations in Chicago and Brooklyn (1901-912), McAfee was appointed professor of systematic theology at McCormick Theological Seminary (1912-1930) and also served as secretary of Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions (1930-1936). He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States and authored the treatise, “The Greatest English Classic: A Study of the King, James Version of the Bible, and its Influence on Life and Literature .” This was the result of lectures delivered in 1912 for the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.

He also penned other hymns of lesser note, including “Christian Soldiers, on to Conflict,” a temperance song (1897), and “Let Us Watch and Pray in our Master’s Name“ (1917), a song about the second coming of Christ.

“Near to the Heart of God,” a simple hymn, expresses in a profound way the admonition of James 4:8, “Draw nigh unto God and He will draw nigh unto you.“

(Dr. Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School University School of Theology, SMU).

Read more
Nathan M

Roseville, California, United States

Oct 12, 2023

Lovely song with which I'm founding myself sometimes singing it. Gives lots of peace an comfort, making me feel closer to God! Praise the Lord God Almighty!

Read more
Pamela Riley

Hurley, Mississippi, United States

Aug 7, 2023

I too praise our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who through their Holy Spirit ministers to our hearts to comfort and strengthen us in times of grief and suffering.

My heart rejoices at seeing names and comments from my brothers and sisters in Christ from the different nations giving evidence to the work of God and the working out of his great commission. Looking forward to meeting you all in our heavenly home in Christ ♥️

Read more
Tom

Lakeland, FL, United States

May 15, 2023

Woke up this morning, with this song going through my mind.

I had not thought of this song in years.

Read more
Peter Brown

Old Harbour, St.Catherine, Jamaica

Sep 12, 2022

This was the closing song for the programme The Voice Of Prophecy led by spesker HMS Richards snr.

Read more
Sam

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Jun 13, 2022

One day sin will be no more.

Read more
Deebee

Toowomba, Qld, Australia

Apr 3, 2022

I heard this hymn year ago and one day while visiting my elderly father he asked me to sing it to him then after he passed I sang it at his funeral 16 months ago

Then recently my mother passed away and my sister said that mum had told her that she wants me to sing it at her funeral

Read more