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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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Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God

Longings For Fellowship with Christ

English376
1
Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God,
In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being and Thy ways.
2
Not for the lip of praise alone,
Nor e’en the praising heart,
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in every part:
3
Praise in the common things of life,
Its goings out and in;
Praise in each duty and each deed,
However small and mean.
4
Fill every part of me with praise;
Let all my being speak
Of Thee and of Thy love, O Lord,
Poor though I be and weak.
5
So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free,
But all my life, in every step,
Be fellowship with Thee.

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Sonja

California, United States

Apr 14, 2016

Abba Father, you are Faithful in ALL Your ways as You love us unconditionally. Thank You for looking beyond our faults of discontent, self-absorption over disappointments and our complaining. Please let my life reflect the joy of You, a living sacrifice of praise to You. Forgive my sins and order my steps to live this life glorifying You. Amen.

Thank you for allowing us see this hymn. Praise God, hallelujah!

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Hannah

London, United Kingdom

Feb 29, 2016

There are some hymns that the Lord approves and this one of them. We are made to God and enjoy Him forever. What better to this allow our lives be filled praise to God our in Jesus Name. It is my utmost desire that my whole being be filled with prais to the Lover of soul. Lord, thank for Jesus and the write of timeless song. Amen!

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Lisa Chiang

Los Angeles, California, United States

Dec 11, 2015

Not just our words or even our hearts, but our whole lives would be made up of praise.

Lord, we may be poor and weak, thinking or feeling (Oh Lord Jesus!) that we cannot be full of praise - this song couldn't possibly be describing us - BUT this song is our earnest plea! Lord, in every detail, every facet of our lives, fill it with Yourself as the One who leads us in praises to the Father! Fill us Lord as the One who is able and willing to praise unceasingly!

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Steve Miller

Detroit, MI, United States

Oct 14, 2013

Horatius Bonar was descended from a long line of Scottish preachers. ... He began his ministry in the slums, writing hymns for children. He was deeply involved in a movement of evangelicals that pulled out of the national church of Scotland to form the Free Church. And through it all, he worked incessantly. One biographer says, "He was unbelievably immersed in work." He loved to travel; he loved his family.

Though his life was busy and filled with the cares of family and congregation, he prayed that, most of all, his life might be filled with "praise in every part." - Great Songs of Faith by Brown and Norton

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

Stanza 3 has been a bit modernized from the original below:
Praise in the common words I speak,
Life’s common looks and tones,
In fellowship in hearth and board
With my belovèd ones;
------------------------------------------
There is an additional stanza following stanza 3:
Not in the temple crowd alone
Where holy voices chime,
But in the silent paths of earth,
The quiet rooms of time.
-------------------------------------
There are 2 more stanzas before the last stanza:
So shalt Thou, Lord, from me, e’en me,
Receive the glory due;
And so shall I begin on earth
The song forever new.
----------------------------------------
So shall each fear, each fret, each care
Be turned into a song,
And every winding of the way
The echo shall prolong;

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Michele Mensing

Waco, TX, United States

Mar 1, 2013

To me, this hymn shows a development of praise. We need to praise with our lips, we need to praise with our heart, we need our whole being and life to be a praise to our God! Praise Him He is operating in us and in our environment and situations to make us this kind of people for the fulfillment of His heart's desire! Poor though we be and weak.

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Billy Bedsaul

Galax, Virginia, United States

Aug 21, 2011

What an awesome song. It was really good and dear to me. Thx for letting me view this. Thank you. May God bless you always.

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morine king

Bridgetown, West Indies, Barbados

Jul 22, 2009

I love this hymn because it was one of my mother's favorite songs. Being the mother of thirteen children I guess it was like a morning prayer to her. Fill Thou my life O Lord my God in every part with praise. What praise and adoration to her God. I know she really felt His presence in her life as she sang boldly: fill Thou my life O Lord my God in every part with praise. Amen.

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Geoff Nelson

Whittier, California, United States

May 28, 2009

This song is yet another example for me of the power and depth of many old hymns, compared the the shallow, reality-denying nature of many Praise songs and choruses in vogue today.

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Lawrence Gatei

Boston, MA, U.S.A.

Oct 21, 2004

I am deeply impressed with this hymn because the experience of praising the Lord in Christian life is perhaps the highest work carried out by God's children. A fellow believer once said that "we can say that the highest expression of a saint's spiritual life is his praise to God. God's throne is the highest point in the universe" country="yet He sits 'enthroned upon the praises of Israel (Psa. 22:3). God's name and even God Himself are exalted through praise." I pray that the the Lord may grant me a praising life—not just praising lips and a praising heart. Oh how enjoyous it is to praise the Lord. King David was a happy man because his life was a praising life. God testified concerning David that he was a man after God's heart. The word in in Psalms 8 say that the Lord ordained praise out of the mouth of the little ones to defeat His enemy and rapindly end his days. So when we praise we enthrone the Lord and expedite the ending of our God's enemy, Satan.

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Johanna Cunanan

Manila, Philippines

Jan 15, 2003

The Lord has enlightened me that when I'm in constant fellowship with the Lord, then spontaneously, I will have a life of praising the Lord in all things! How wonderful it would be to be delivered from all care and self-introspection to be joined to the Lord always, to see things as He sees them, to have the mind of Christ, enjoying and declaring His victory!

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