Chord Sequencer Tutorial
Access the chord sequencer by pressing [shift+menu] then pressing encoder button 1
Each area of the chords sequencer screen is associated with either a single knob (knobs 1,3,5, and 7) or a
right/left pair of knobs (2+6, 4+8). These screen areas are broken up by white lines so as to indicate
which knob is for which area, if there is a white vertical line it means that the right an left knob are
independent for that screen area.
Load and Save
Turn encoder 1 to select a chord sequence to load (there are 6 slots, labeled 0-5) press [shift + the
encoder button to load a sequence.
You can do the same with encoder 5 to select and save a sequence once you find something you like.
As denoted by the white vertical line in the middle of the top screen section (under the banner) these
two knobs are independent of each other.
Structure of a Chord Sequence
The structure of a chord sequence is made up of a few ingredients, to understand it, it can be helpful to
look at things from the bottom up:
Songs, Sections, and Steps:
The Sequence is made up of a Song:
The song plays back the various Sections in the order you want (with however many repeats of
each section you choose).
The Sections:
There are 3 sections labeled A,B, and C and each is made up of between 1 and 6 “steps”
The Steps:
Each step details what you want to happen on that part of the sequence. The
KEY and MODE as well as the CHORD DEGREE and CHORD TYPE are all selected
here. The other key piece of info that each step contains is how long of a
duration the step will last. This can be between 0.5 and 16 quarter notes.
The way these are arranged on the screen is from the bottom up with Song on the bottom, the sections
above that and the step currently being edited above that.
Choosing a step to edit
The first step we will edit is A1, which is the default step which is chosen with a new sequence, however
it is important that we understand how to select a step before we begin editing. By turning encoder 3
clockwise we are able to scroll through the potential steps of Section A, then it wraps around to B, and
finally C. The currently selected Step will be yellow, and all Steps with a duration greater than zero will
show up with a green outline around them. Now that we’ve explored this, return the cursor to the first
slot on the first row (A1), and get ready to edit the Step data.
Editing Step Data
Now that we’ve selected Step A1 to edit, we will jump up a zone on the screen and proceed to use
encoders 2 and 6 to enter our values into the step. We will use encoder 2 to move between editing
points (what we refer to as tab-stops) and encoder 6 will edit the parameters at each stop. The currently
selected Tab-Stop will be lit yellow, rather than white. I often describe this as an etch a sketch style of
editing. Left hand changes the slot to edit, right hand changes the value.
So the first Tab-Stop is the Duration. We can select 4 ¼ notes here (using encoder 6) to keep
things nice and simple.
Then using encoder 2, select the second Tab-Stop (it will be lit yellow) and use encoder 6 to
Choose A for our Key.
Again using encoder 2, select the next Tab-Stop, MODE, and use encoder 6 to select MINOR.
Next use encoder 2 to select the Chord Degree Tab-Stop and encoder 6 to enter Roman Numeral
i for the A minor Chord.
Finally use encoder 2 and select the Chord Type Tab-Stop. Use encoder 6 to enter 7 th as our
chord type.
To summarize, for our first step we chose to play 1 Bar of the chord A minor 7 th, which is the 1st chord
degree of the scale/mode A minor.
Select another step
We can now jump down one zone on the screen and use encoder 3 to choose our next step. For our
next step we will choose step A2. Follow the steps outlined in the choosing a step heading above and
get ready to enter the data for the second step.
Step two
We will follow the steps layed out above in the editing step data to enter the following data:
1. Duration = 4 ¼ notes
2. Key = A
3. Mode = Minor
4. Chord degree = VI F
5. Chord type = 7th
Step three
Do it a few more times
Repeat these steps to enter B1 – B3 with the following data:
1. B1 and 2 will be 4 ¼ notes, B3 will be 8 ¼ notes long.
2. Key for all three will be A
3. Mode = Minor
4. Chord Degree B1 = i Am, B2 = iv Dm, B3 = VII G
5. Chord type = 7th for all
Now put it all together
Our next step is to enter the order we want it played into the Song structure at the bottom of the
screen. We will use the etch a sketch controls again with the 4 th and 8th encoders, 4th choosing the slot
to edit, 8th choosing the value for the data. The song is made up of up to 8 instances of any of our 3
sections (A,B and C) followed by a number of times we want that section repeated. This could be like A is
Verse, B is Chorus, C is Bridge, and we want to play:
Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Chorus
Bridge
Verse
We would make the Song as follows:
AX1 Bx1 Ax1 Bx2
Cx1 Ax1 x x
For our little demo we’re keeping it pretty simple, using encoder 4 select the first Tab-Stop on the Song
Screen and using encoder 8 change the value to A then move over to the repeats with Encoder 4 and
make sure it says x1. Do this again and make the 2nd Tab-Stop say Bx1, and leave the rest of the slots
blank.
We are now ready to play our first Chord Sequence!
Save!
Before we continue, let’s save our work as a jumping off point for further exploration. Using encoder 5
select Slot 1, then press [Shift+Encoder button 5] to save our work. We can now use encoder 1 to reload
slot 1 any time we want even after power cycling.
Enable playback
First make sure all playback is stopped, then to enable the chord sequencer to take over control of the
NDLR we first need to use encoder 7 to change the red DISARM label to a green ARMED label. Once this
is done, press the Play All button to the above- left of the Display. The Chord Sequencer will begin
playing back the chords and scales you set in the sequence and will continue until you press stop or
disarm the Chord Seq with encoder 7.
That’s all folks
I hope this demo is helpful, I am terrible at making videos, so I figured I would start with this and hope it
does the job. If not, I may be able to whip up some potato level video of the info presented here in a
pinch. Let me know if it’s needed.
