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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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Feed on His faithfulness, my soul

Encouragement For Feeding on the Lord’s Faithfulness

English655
1
Feed on His faithfulness, my soul,
Who chose thee for His own,
Who bears thy name in Love’s pure flame
Before the heav’nly throne;
Lay at His feet thy fear,
Thy burdens, thy distress,
Prostrate embrace thy Fount of Grace—
Feed on His faithfulness.
2
Feed on His faithfulness, my soul,
Who suffered Calvary,
Who Victor rose o’er all thy foes,
Who lives, who prays, for thee!
Not thine the battle is,
Though close the conflict press:
’Tis His alone who wears the crown—
Feed on His faithfulness.
3
Feed on His faithfulness, my soul,
Then naught shall thee affright;
His perfect will all fear shall still,
His wisdom guide aright.
He slumbers not nor sleeps,
But waits His saints to bless;
Th’ eternal Throne is His alone—
Feed on His faithfulness.
4
Feed on His faithfulness, my soul;
So shalt thou see His face,
Transforming thee till all shall see
The glory of His grace;
Closer to His great heart
In glad abandon press;
Fling thy soul down upon His own—
Feed on His faithfulness.

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Esther Olubunmi

Ogun, Nigeria

Jun 13, 2025

Amen Lord! I feed on His faithfulness!!

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Sunny Olatunji

Nigeria

Jul 9, 2020

Hallelujah.... AMEN

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Ana Lara

United States

Apr 27, 2020

E. Margaret Clarkson was born in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1915 and spent most of her life in the area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was a member of the Knox Presbyterian Church of that city. Miss Clarkson was involved in the Toronto Public School System for many years holding a variety of positions. During this time, she wrote books, articles and poems which were featured in Christian and educational periodicals as well as wrote for various publishers. Some of her published books are,

“Let’s Listen to Music, ” “The Creative Classroom”, “Susie’s Babies, ” and “The Wondrous Cross. ”

Margaret also wrote a hymn titled “So Send I You” which became labeled by some evangelical leaders as one of the finest missionary hymns of the twentieth century. It was published in 1954 after having been written sixteen years earlier by Margaret Clarkson. She says the following statement about the writing of “So Send I You. ”

In 1935 teaching jobs became so scarce that I finally had to find my first job as a teacher in a lumber camp some 1400 miles from home, out in the Rainy River District of northwestern Ontario. From there I moved to the gold mining camp of Kirkland Lake, 450 miles north of Toronto. In all, I spent seven years in the north. I experienced loneliness of every kind-mental, cultural, but particularly spiritual, for in all those seven years I never found real Christian fellowship-churches were modern and born-again Christians almost non-existent.

I was studying the Word one night and meditating on the loneliness of my situation and came in my reading to John 20, and the words “so send I you. ” Because of a physical disability I knew I could never go to the mission field, but God seemed to tell me that this was my mission field, and this was where He had sent me. I was then twenty-three, in my third year of teaching. I had written and published verse all my life, so it was natural for me to put my thoughts into verse.

Years later she added this account regarding the hymn :

A few years ago I began to realize that this poem was really very one-sided; it told only the sorrows and privations of missionary work and none of of its triumphs. I wrote another song in the same rhythm so that verses could be used interchangeably, setting forth the glory and hope of missionary calling. These verses are the newer version published in 1963:

1. So send I you-by grace made strong to triumph
O’er hosts of hell, o’er darkness, death and sin,
My name to bear, and in that name to conquer-
So send I you, My victory to win.

2. So send I you-to bear my cross with patience,
And then one day with joy to lay it down,
To hear my voice, “Well done, My faithful servant-
Come, share my throne, my kingdom and my crown. ”

The music for “So Send I You” was composed especially for Margaret Clarkson’s hymn by John W. Peterson, often called the dean of contemporary gospel song writers. The contributions to church music of Peterson’s ministry since World War II became well-known to evangelical Christians. He composed more than 1200 gospel songs, hymns and choruses as well as cantatas and musicals, which have themes from gospel messages. He also co- authored the hymn “Surely Goodness and Mercy. ”

In his book, “The Miracle Goes On, ” Mr. Peterson often mentions his convictions about the power of a gospel song to change a person’s life. He gives the following account:

“So Send I You, ” a song I wrote in collaboration with Margaret Clarkson, was used by God in the life of an actress who had come to know Christ and who had faced an agonizing decision: Should she maintain her professional contacts or give up her career and dedicate her life completely to the Lord for service, wherever He might lead? In the midst of her dilemma she sat listening to a recording of this song, and its challenge came through with stunning impact. The actress fell to her knees and made a total commitment of her life to God, and in due time He resolved the question of her vocation.

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Anonymous

Nov 12, 2017

Oh the faithfulness of our God.

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Pat

United States

May 28, 2015

Amen. Thank You Lord for suffering Calvary, rising up Victor over all our foes and ever living to make intercession for us as our Great High Priest! Hallelujah, what a Saviour! I love You, Lord Jesus!

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Dustene Ella

Uae, United Arab Emirates

May 8, 2015

amen! another marvelouse song!...ava amahan.....

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