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

Of all the gifts Thy love bestows

Worship of the Father His Redemption

English38
1
Of all the gifts Thy love bestows,
Thou Giver of all good.
E’en heav’n itself no richer knows
Than Jesus and His blood.
2
Faith, too, that trusts in Him through grace,
From that same love we gain;
Else, sweetly as it suits our case,
The gift had been in vain.
3
We praise Thee, and would praise Thee more,
To Thee our all we owe:
The precious Savior, and the power
That makes Him precious too.

Delete Comment

Delete this comment? This cannot be undone.
Ruth

Ladysmith, BC, Canada

Apr 22, 2026

Thank you for this informative, faith-building story of Willian Cowper’s life, salvation and transformation through Jesus.

Read more
Ana Lara

Storrs, Connecticut, United States

May 10, 2021

William Cowper wrote a few lines about his mother’s portrait at 60 whom he lost as a child:

“And while that face renews my filial grief,

Fancy shall weave a charm for my relief. ”

A contemporary of John Wesley and George Whitfield – leaders of the evangelical revival in England-Cowper embraced the Calvinistic theology of Whitfield. A warm Evangelical brand of Calvinism shaped by John Newton (“Old African Blasphemer”), remembers when young people gathered at 4 AM to hear Whitfield preach in the open air.

William was 27 when Jonathan Edwards died in America, lived through the American and French Revolution and Ben Franklin gave his volume a good revival. He spent almost all his adult life at Olney and Weston, the rural English country.

Cowper’s father of Great Berkhamsted was the rector to the Church of St. Peter and King George II’s chaplain. His father’s sister was a poet, Judith Madan and his mother was Ann née Donne. He and his brother John were the only two of seven children to live past infancy. He was from a well-to-do family but not evangelical so Cowper had no saving relation to Christ. After his mother’s death at 6 years old, he was sent to San Potoman’s Boarding School. From the age of 10 to 17 he attended Westminster Private School. He learned Greek and Latin well enough to translate Homer’s works and Madame Guyon’s writings.

In 1749, William became an apprentice to a solicitor with a view to practice law but he had no heart for the public life as a lawyer. For 10 years he lived a life of leisure with little involvement in his supposed career. In 1752, he sank into his first of four paralyzing depressions. This would be one of the major battles; break downs so severe as to set him to “string out of windows. ” For weeks at a time he struggled with despair which became the theme of his life. At 21 years old not yet a believer he wrote, “Day and night I was upon the rack lying down with horror and rising up in despair. ” He came through this depression with the help of the poems by George Herbert who lived 150 years earlier which contained beauty enough for hope. William would take several months away from London by way of Southampton. That was the “Hand of mercy,” the merciful hand of God in nature but he did not see Him or give Him the glory.

Between 1749 and 1756 Cowper was falling in love with Theodora his cousin. He would visit her home on the weekends. She became the “Delia” of his poems. They became engaged but her father forbade the marriage because of the “inappropriateness of their consanguinity. ” A relationship developed for 7 years as well as their engagement only to shatter on a “brick wall” at the last minute. After 1756, they never saw each other again. She would outlive him but never married. She followed his poetic career anonymously and sent a regular stipend. He wrote 19 poems to her.

In 1759, at age 28 through influence of his father, he was appointed Commissioner of Bankruptcy in London, four years later he was about to be made Clerk of Journalism in Parliament but fear struck him and he had a mental breakdown. He tried to commit suicide three times and was sent to an asylum. For six months his feelings where those of “a man when he arrives at the place of execution. ”

The traumatic death of his mother and his father’s decision to send him away to boarding school where he was bullied extensively caused young William’s breakdowns.

William was saved at age 32 in an asylum, after trying three times to commit suicide. In July 1764, he was outside the asylum’s garden reading the Scriptures and read Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. ” Verse 24 further explained that we are justified by His grace through the relationship with Jesus Christ whom God put forward as a propitiation for our sin. Through His blood we are forgiven by faith. “I received the strength to believe it! My pardon sealed in His blood. ” It was here he wrote the hymn: “There is a fountain filled with blood. ”

Read more
David Miller

Washington, DC, United States

Nov 10, 2019

James 1:17 All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variation or shadow cast by turning.

Read more