Hexaphone 1.1.1 provides a unique "Motion Filter" - a Moog-inspired Resonant Lowpass Filter driven by your accelerometer. This filter amplifies a small part of the frequency spectrum, and "cuts off" all frequencies above that part of the spectrum. You can "sweep" the filter by moving the cutoff up and down - producing an effect similar to a wah-wah pedal.

Check out this demonstration of the Motion Filter:

(Also available on YouTube)

To sweep the filter, slide the SETUP > FILTER REZ slider up from zero, and use the accelerometer tilt:

The position of the FILTER REZ slider effects the "resonance" of the filter - how much the frequency is amplified just before the cutoff. More resonance will make the filter sound "wetter".

The filter will sound most interesting when it is in motion - even small movements up and down produce a noticable change in the sound.

Not every patch sounds good with the filter - Tonewheel sounds especially bad, especially at the higher registers. The filter sounds best with "edgy" sounds (with sharp wave edges), like Power Square, Power Saw and Bass Buzz.

NOTE: This lesson uses the Reggae loop, one of the new loops in version 1.1 of Hexaphone, coming soon.

This video demonstrates the use of the Minor Chord scale (called "Minor 2" in v1.0) to play a reggae jam.

The Minor Chord scale, like a number of others (Major Chord, Trance, and Dance) form one triad on the top row, and another on the bottom. Thus, adjacent notes on the same horizontal row can always be played together, and will sound good.

The distinctive reggae sound comes from chords played between each beat. This technique is a subset of a more sophisticated reggae technique called "The Bubble".

Patch: Tonewheel / Scale: Minor Chord (Minor 2) / Loop: Reggae (available in version 1.1)

Hexaphone's simplified six-note keyboard makes it easy to play chords.

This video demonstrates the use of the Minor Chord scale (called "Minor 2" in v1.0) to play dance chords over a bassline.

In this scale, as well as the Major Chord scale (aka Major 2), Trance and Dance scale, all the notes on the bottom row form one chord, and all the notes on the top row form a different chord.

Touching keys to the left or right will transpose these chords up or down.

Patch: Power Saw / Scale: Minor Chord (Minor 2) / Loop: Hard (Dance)

There are other chords you can make by combining keys from the top and bottom rows - these will be demonstrated in a future advanced lesson.

Time to step it up a notch - lay down a funky bassline, and follow the cues in the video to play the melody and chorus.

Patch: Power Square / Scale: Hip Hop Minor (Minor 2) / Loop: West Side

New players have a tendency to ignore the beat, and focus on playing notes in rapid succession.

I suggest a simpler approach -- stick to just ONE note -- the root (1) -- until you're in sync with the beat.

Next add in the 3 and the 7 -- but stick to the beat.

Try syncopating your rhythm -- but stick to the beat.

Explore the other notes -- try improvising briefly on the 3rd and 4th beats of the loop - but always go back to the beat.