Question about Nashville notation

[turf3]

Not traditionally in Nashville notation.
Am is your 6m and C is your 1.

Well, I'd say that the 1, in a song that's in the key of A minor, is A minor; but that in the NN it's WRITTEN as 6m.

The key is still the key.

There are plenty of tunes that are genuinely in C major but have an A minor chord; in that case the 1 is C and the 6m is A. There are also plenty of tunes that are genuinely in A minor, in which case harmonically the one is A minor. You can write it however you like. You could declare that you should write it as if it were in G so the A minor that's actually the key of the tune is a 2min.

But, at any rate, in the traditional Nashville style, they'll write "6m" (or, if I understand correctly, just "6" as the m is understood by the notes of the C major scale). I submit that this tells you it's A minor, but it leaves out information about where the harmonies go from there. To ME, at least, saying "6m-2m-V7-I" means something different than "i min-iv min-bVII7-IIImaj".

But they're not asking me, are they?

 

[GroovinOnFunk]

But they're not asking me, are they?

You're way overthinking it. You've made several long posts here talking about theory, not Nashville Number System.

It's a simple answer: Nashville number charts don't really get charted in the relative minor. They're almost (keyword is ALMOST) always in a major key and the minor is a 6m. (Also they definitely do mark if it's minor with an "m" or a "-" on most Nashville charts.)

 

[turf3]

You're way overthinking it....

I'm sure I am.

 

[Fuzzbass]

Yeah, a variant of that is songs that start on the IV or V and people who insist that THAT's the key.

"That'll Be The Day in D!"

So I start out playing a G chord, but what he MEANT was "That'll Be The Day in A", where the first chord is D.

....and then there's Sweet Home Alabama (fun video):

 

[J Wilson]

I live in Nashville, have seen and made my share of number system charts, and while I can't speak for everyone, if I was on a date and I he song was in A Minor, I'd never see it written up out of C. Never.

 

[pbass2]

Whether correct or not, every Nashville gig I've been on has used the 1 for both major and minor keys. Put more clearly; If the band leader says/charts 1 in A it's an A chord. If they say/chart 1 in Am it's an Am chord. I believe @UntitledProject is correct about it always being major academically, but I've never actually encountered anyone using it that way in the wild. YMMV.

This is how it has been on every country (or other genre) gig or session I've been on where there are numbers charts. That's how I write 'em as well. But I'm not in Nashville and the only music I have played there on tour was punk

 

[WRM]

Not traditionally in Nashville notation.
Am is your 6m and C is your 1.

This agrees with Chas Williams' book.

 

[turf3]

....and then there's Sweet Home Alabama (fun video):

I usually discount the "smartest guy on the planet" his videos, but I watched this one clear through, for some reason.

What he alluded to, but didn't say outright, is that these kinds of music where standard Western functional harmony with its forward-driven movement toward a resolution, doesn't seem to apply, are mostly those with a large amount of African influence. Afro-Cuban; blues; rock and roll. For that matter, I expect the Spanish side of Latin music may have a large Moorish (North African) influence.

That sort of "long, repeated cycling through a limited number of tonalities" is very characteristic of these types of music - as well as certain forms of jazz composition NOT derived from Broadway show tunes. Consider, for example, "Impressions" or "Blue in Green" or "So What". Two chords back and forth. No real resolution.

It's also worth considering the VERY different approaches to rhythm. You can take the most diatonic Western-harmony-filled Broadway Tin Pan Alley tune, hand it over to Charlie Parker, or Art Blakey, or Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and the RHYTHM they impose on it will make it clearly and unambiguously jazz.

 

[Fuzzbass]

What he alluded to, but didn't say outright, is that these kinds of music where standard Western functional harmony with its forward-driven movement toward a resolution, doesn't seem to apply, are mostly those with a large amount of African influence. Afro-Cuban; blues; rock and roll. For that matter, I expect the Spanish side of Latin music may have a large Moorish (North African) influence.

You know your stuff, excellent points. To this paragraph specifically: after watching Adam's Sweet Home analysis, I watched the one below on Hey Joe. This one is longer, so I don't necessarily suggest you watch the whole thing, but it does cover some of what you said above.