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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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Freed from self and Adam’s nature

The Church Her Building

English840
1
Freed from self and Adam’s nature,
Lord, I would be built by Thee
With the saints into Thy temple,
Where Thy glory we shall see.
From peculiar traits deliver,
From my independent ways,
That a dwelling place for Thee, Lord,
We will be thru all our days.
2
By Thy life and by its flowing
I can grow and be transformed,
With the saints coordinated,
Builded up, to Thee conformed;
Keep the order in the Body,
There to function in Thy will,
Ever serving, helping others,
All Thy purpose to fulfill.
3
In my knowledge and experience
I would not exalted be,
But submitting and accepting
Let the Body balance me;
Holding fast the Head, and growing
With His increase, in His way,
By the joints and bands supplying,
Knit together day by day.
4
By Thy Spirit daily strengthened
In the inner man with might,
I would know Thy love surpassing,
Know Thy breadth and length and height;
Ever of Thy riches taking,
Unto all Thy fullness filled,
Ever growing into manhood,
That Thy Body Thou may build.
5
In God’s house and in Thy Body
Builded up I long to be,
That within this corporate vessel
All shall then Thy glory see;
That Thy Bride, the glorious city,
May appear upon the earth,
As a lampstand brightly beaming
To express to all Thy worth.

Copyright Living Stream Ministry. Used by permission.

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Maria L

Fremont, California, United States

Feb 10, 2025

Strengthen us into our inner man so that we may be willing to deny the self, take up our cross, and lose our soul-life to follow You through death and resurrection for the building up of the church! Lord, gain the building! 🙏

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Br.Jeff Hall

Church In Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

Jun 25, 2023

It is not I but Christ, Lord, transform us into living precious stones, balanced by the Body and holding out the Head for Thy expression! Overcoming saints are buildable! Thank you Lord for revealing Your Grand Plan!

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Ray Stump

Waco, TX, United States

Dec 9, 2022

Just read sister Cosette's commrent this morning from August 4, 2021. Now I must read "Character" by Witness Lee. Thank the Lord for His work in us and on us, that, as Hymn 840 (W. LEE) says, "Ever growing into manhood, that Thy Body Thou may build." He doesn't say, that Thy Body WE may build. Thank you sister for sharing this.

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Cosette

Gainesville, FL, United States

Aug 5, 2021

Sorry saints, that’s supposed to say “bearing”, not “beating”. Amen.

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Cosette

Gainesville, FL, United States

Aug 4, 2021

In order to be made useful to the Lord, we must first have a love for the Lord and a desire for Him, then we must have a vision of the Lord and an encounter with Him, followed by a vision of the self and a revelation of the cross, and fourth is by beating Christ by our character. (From “Character” by Witness Lee). In our experience, it may be relatively easier to have the first two aspects, but to have a vision of the self needing to be dealt with by the cross is very difficult. I’m encouraged by this hymn “We are freed from self and Adam’s nature”. Hallelujah this has already been accomplished! The Lord dealt with the old man on the cross, and now He’s doing this work in us. Lord, keep us open to your dealing with the self in us each day!

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Amos Kimani

Naivasha, Nakuru, Kenya

Nov 10, 2019

Hallelujah we are now free from self Adam nature, now the Body can be built. Self is the greatest impediment to growth of the Body of Christ and by extention the Church.

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Thanh Le

San Francisco, California, United States

Oct 13, 2019

Freed from self and Adam’s nature is the unique way to be builded up into the Body of Christ and to live a genuine Christian life.

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Amos

Nairobi, Nyandarua, Kenya

Oct 15, 2017

How wonderful to be freed from self, it is the main hindrance preventing our growth and oneness.

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Kevin Johnston

Evanston, IL

Apr 19, 2014

This song is a prayer, a prayer perhaps foreign to many Christians who have not received a vision of God's desire for a dwelling place on this earth. We may think that God only dwells in heaven and is satisfied to remain there. But the revelation of the Bible, in type in the Old Testament with the tabernacle and the temple, and in reality in the New Testament with Christ and the church, is that God desires to dwell in man on the earth. I was struck recently by Paul's description in 1 Tim. 3:15 of the church as "the house of the living God." Without the church, God is a homeless God. Of course there are great benefits to us to be the house of God ("blessed are they who dwell in Your house"), but far beyond that we should realize and respond to God's need for a home. Wouldn't your heart ache for this?

Once we see this vision, we, as the writer of this hymn does, would yearn and pray that we would be freed from our self and Adam's nature to be the living stones built up with all the other believers to be that universal house of our God on this earth. May we present our bodies as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1) that God can realize His glorious economy. Amen.

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