Animaterra, they used it for all tempos. If you're giving a chart to someone else you SHOULD indicate the time signature. The trick is to only acknowledge when the chord changes do something IRREGULAR. If you have a song with a lot of bars of the same chord you could do it this way. I'll use Woody's "Pasture's Of Plenty" for an example.

Played in Dm. (meaning it's written in the Key of 'F'.

6-(x8) or 6-(x16) depending whether your giving 2 or 4 beats per bar.

I put a few more chords in it than Woody did, so I'd write it like this.

6-(x4), 1(x8), 6-(x2), 4/5, 6-(x2).

Dm////F////////Dm//Bb/C/Dm//

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Once again, it's NOT foolproof, or even always logical. It's just what the Nashville guys used. I think the most useful thing anyone can actually get from this is to be able to identify chords by number.....forget the timing aspect of it...it can get quite convaluted. But if you're playing "Don't let your deal Go Down" and you can just say to your fellow pickers Key of E, 6,2,5,1....The ones who are capoed to play in C know it's A,D,G,C. The bass player knows it's C#, F#, B, E. and the beginner mandolinist who's capoed on the second fret 'cause he/she can only play in D, knows it's B,E,A,D.

Rick