In an effort to keep our workshops accessible, we are offering a limited number of Pay-What-You-Can (PWYC) registrations for this class.

This class will be recorded and will be available digitally for enrolled students

Using the Nashville Number System, a workshop in three parts.

During the heyday of the pop music recording scenes of the 1950’s and 60’s, particularly in and around Nashville, Muscle Shoals, and Memphis, a notation shorthand was developed amongst the top call, busiest session players in those important hubs. Traditional notation was too slow for the pace that was being set in these sessions, ease of transposition was required, and time was, and is, money. Demos and master sessions needed to be cut and cut fast to feed the song hungry industry they were creating. 

What the number system evolved into is something that is understood by a wide variety of musicians that use it from something that was highly individualized for small groups of likeminded session players.

In this 3-week session, Dan will demonstrate how the Nashville Number System can be used to quickly communicate an arrangement to a group of players that may never have played together, efficiently and without endless rehearsal or discussion. By the end of the workshops, participants should have a working understanding of how to interpret and create charts using this system, which is useful particularly for but not limited to rhythm section players in many settings in the pop, folk, blues, jazz, country, bluegrass, and r&b worlds.

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About Dan Eubanks:

Singer Songwriter and Multi-instrumentalist Dan Eubanks is most familiar to roots music fans as the long time upright bassist for the long running bluegrass band Special Consensus out of Chicago. The band is known as a perennial favorite amongst bluegrass fans of all tastes and has been twice Grammy nominated for Best Bluegrass Album, once during Dan’s tenure, and in his time in the band was awarded with eight trophies in various categories including Album of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association. Dan appeared on six of the band’s releases from 2014 to 2025 on the Compass Label as bassist, harmony and lead vocalist and occasional writer.

A native of the St. Louis area, after receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Jazz Studies and working as a freelance bassist and bandleader in Jazz, Salsa, Funk and Rock bands, as well as serving as faculty at several local colleges and universities, Dan moved to Nashville TN in 2004, and embarked on a career that included session and touring work in Bluegrass, Americana, Blues, Latin Jazz, Salsa, Country, and Rock. Dan has also released two full length releases under his own name as a solo artist in the roots music realm. Having recently moved back home to the city of St Louis, he is still maintaining a busy touring and recording schedule as well as playing and teaching locally once again. Dan’s recent teaching duties have included online adjunct music professor at East Tennessee State University, in their Bluegrass, Old Time, and Roots Music program, and numerous acoustic music camps, private teaching, and workshops across North America.

Dan’s latest efforts include a new record of original roots music which will be released on the Common Loon Records label in the spring of 2026. The current single and title cut “Rustbelt Town” is enjoying airplay on SiriusXM Bluegrass Junction as well as several other radio stations domestic and international. Dan plays multiple instruments on the record and is supported by a brilliant assemblage of fellow roots music artists Michael Prewitt, Aaron Bibelhauser, and Jeff Guernsey among others.