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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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And is it so! I shall be like Thy Son

Hope of Glory Blessed Likeness

English950
1
And is it so! I shall be like Thy Son?
Is this the grace which He for me has won?
Father of glory—thought beyond all thought!
In glory, to His own blest likeness brought!
2
Oh, Jesus, Lord, who loved me like to Thee?
Fruit of Thy work, with Thee, too, there to see
Thy glory, Lord, while endless ages roll,
Myself the prize and travail of Thy soul.
3
Yet it must be: Thy love had not its rest
Were Thy redeemed not with Thee fully blest;
That love that gives not as the world, but shares
All it possesses with its loved co-heirs.
4
Nor I alone; Thy loved ones, all complete
In glory, round Thee there with joy shall meet
All like Thee, for Thy glory like Thee, Lord,
Object supreme of all, by all adored.

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Br

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Sep 12, 2024

My dad passed away today at 1:30 pm Sept 12, 2024. In communication with a fellow Christian about this, the opening words of this beautiful hymn came to mind.

My dad was one of the most Godly and Christlike people who ever lived. His transmission to glory is the icing on the cake. His work is completed.

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Bob Carbrey

Durham, North Carolina, United States

Feb 14, 2024

So beautiful!

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Nancy Goss

Falls Church, VA, United States

Oct 28, 2020

Such a beautiful hymn written by such a dear man of God.

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Ana Lara

Storrs, Connecticut, United States

Oct 8, 2019

John Nelson Darby (1800-82) is well known for writing a five volume set called ‘The Synopsis of the Bible’. Watchman Nee gave a set to Witness Lee as a reply to a letter that Lee had written to Nee in 1925 on how to help in the reading of the Bible. Darby also wrote other publications as well as several hymns of high spiritual character.

He was born on November 18, 1800 (the year William Cowper died). He was the youngest son of John Darby of Sussex and of King’s County Ireland who was a descendant of the Normans. His mother was from the Vaughan family in Wales.

In 1798 Lord Nelson who won the Battle of the Nile and serving under him was Sir Henry Darby, Darby’s uncle. Lord Nelson sponsored JN Darby in his baptism and gave him his middle name. Even though he was in a position and had the ability to be great in this world, he chose Christ to become all to him. As he puts it in one of his hymns:

‘Tis the treasure we’ve found in His love

That has made us now pilgrims below’

Like Cowper he lost his mother early in his childhood to whom he refers to early in his writings. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 1819 winning the classical Gold Medal. Later, he entered the legal profession as his father had desired but left it after being converted to God.

He took up holy orders in the Church of England and was made a deacon by 1925 and appointed to a large parish in Wicklow County, Ireland. A year later when he went up to the city to be made a priest by the Bishop and was informed about the condition of the Church of England. Upon returning to his parish he did much among Roman Catholics, many of whom were led to Christ as Savior. A notice from the Bishop that that new converts must take allegiance to the King, stirred up His conscience to leave the Anglican Church.

He and others met at Lady Powerscourt’s Castle in Ireland. Church truth came out and it was where they first took up prophecy.

In Dublin, Edward Parnel and J. G. Bellet broke bread and Mr. Darby recognized this as the work of the Lord. The Lord gave him many truths to help those who were now gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus outside Christiandom. He became the first real expositor of the book of Revelation. Justification by faith was more clearly seen as well as the body of Christ, and Israel’s restoration after the rapture. His work carried him all over Europe the United States, Canada and the south sea islands of the Pacific.

In 1881 he revised the Little Flock Hymn Book where he added more hymns with definite praise to the Father. Some of the hymns Darby wrote appear in this hymnal: 47, 127, 664, 950 and ‘Oh the Joy of Having nothing’ Other works include 34 volumes of ministry, the synopsis of the whole Bible, and three volumes of letters in which he stood firmly for the truth.

He became ill with the dropsy in February of 1882. On April 29, 1882, Dr. A. H. Burton, his attending physician, gave the news that Brother J. N. D. Had finished the wilderness journey

On April 11, 1882 he said:-

“Well, it will be strange to find myself in heaven; but it won’t be strange to Christ-One I have known these many years. How little I know Him. I am glad He knows me-I KNOW MY SHEEP.

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Oscar Richards

Hoywood, Florida, United States

Jan 10, 2016

About bible audio thing to read simple thing to let me understand.

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Jim Mcmullan

Belfast, N. Ireland, United Kingdom

Mar 24, 2013

Outstanding hymn which has become one of my favourites - to think that one day those who love the Saviour will be like Him. I am so unlike Him now but then and forever I will be like Him for I shall see Him as He is.

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