Hey Friend,
Based on most of the responses I've received back about my questions to you, either I'm a really good teacher, or you guys are just really smart. I'm banking on the "you're really smart."
Anyway, since we've covered notes and scales, and some basic chord information, I thought now must be a good time to clear up some potentially confusing material: note vs. chord numbering
Whenever we want to identify a note in a scale or chord, we're going to use and Arabic numbering system. That's 1, 2, 3, etc. Always.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8(1) 9(2) 10(3) 11(4) C D E F G A B C D E F
Later, when we get to add9, add11 and other chords, you'll see where these number come in handy to identity the "added" note to a chord. However, for the triads and seven chords, you don't need to think about this.
When we want to identify a chord, we're going to use Roman numerals. For example, when I write out the harmonic scale for the key of C major, I could write it out as:
C Dm Em F G Am Bdim
Or, I could notate it like this:
I ii iii IV V vi vii°
With capital Roman numerals as major chords, lower case Roman numerals as minor chords and the diminished chords with lower case Roman numeral and the degree sign.
This is how I've always done it, and up until now, this has served me well. But there is another way, and it seems to work pretty well for studio musicians that don't know how to read music. It's called the Nashville Numbering System. Turns out a lot of Nashville session players are music-reading challenged, but they don't have any problem putting out tons of chart-topping music.
The Nashville Numbering System combines note numbers with notation for major or minor forms. It's based on the note number in the scale (the scale degree), which is also the root note of each chord.
So when a chord chart is laid out in a studio session, they would do it like this:
1 2m 3m 4 5 6m 7°
This is where the practice of calling it a "one" chord or "five" chord came from. One distinction is important to remember, though. You have to remember to specify whether the chord should be minor or diminished, or any other flavor for that matter. If you told a session player you want a "two" chord, (s)he's gonna play a major chord. So you have to say you want a "two minor" to actually get what you want.
The problem with using Arabic numbers to specify chords is, it can get confusing between the melodic scale (notes) and the harmonic scale (chords). So try a hybrid approach... use Roman numerals to specify the chords, along with the 'm,' or '°,' or '7' to to define what kind of chord it should be.
You should only use capital Roman numerals with this approach - it helps prevent confusion. The harmonic progression looks like this:
I IIm IIIm IV V VIm VII°
Whoops, lost track of time! Gotta run... I'll be back to tomorrow to review. Y'all have a great FRIDAY - Rock on!
Peace~
Dave | 
