Refuel 2026 Breakout 2 - Chordii / Nashville Charts

1:15 PM The Chordii dude

Overall Concept

Learning the Nashville number system seems to be the ticket to unlocking your band’s potential.

No discussion was made about how Nashville charts are actually made (software). No discussion about the other markings on a Nashville chart (rhythm, etc).

Some discussion about minor keys. Some discussion about music theory (diminished chords). Some discussion about accidentals in a chart.

JCB Thoughts

Unfortunately, most of this session was a thinly veiled sales pitch for a little cardboard wheel that can aid in learning the Nashville system.

While a neat and probably useful tool, I’m wary of products designed to extract money out of you and promise to make learning something easier when you already have all of information in front of you. To add insult to injury, the guy handed out, to every person in the room, a full-page conversion chart for every key, complete with minor keys on the back side. He proposed that it was too clunky to use and confusing to look at when converting a chart; less useful than his product. He literally handed us all of the information needed to learn the thing, but still expected us to buy the product.

My recommendation: Grab some 3x5 cards, make one card for each key to convert to/from the Nashville system. If you’re fancy, use a computer and a printer. Grab a hole-punch and an old shower curtain ring and voila you just saved yourself $20. Or more if you also purchased the minor key version.

Musings:

One member of the session asked why this product was necessary if they can already just change keys on the fly via software on their ipads.