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How to play minor 9th chords with one finger on the FM-1 with ChoralRoot

ChoralRoot, an Orchid-style chord firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1, builds a chord from the keys you hold at the left end of the keybed and the root you play with the rest of it. Its LOCK key, B3, keeps those chord keys on after you let go, so one finger plays the roots. Lock MIN, m7 and 9 and every root you play is a minor 9th chord.

The short answer

LOCK holds the chord keys, so one finger plays the root.

Before you start

These steps are for ChoralRoot 0.24 on the M-VAVE FM-1, from its default settings. Options > Reset Settings (OCT+ twice) puts every setting back to the default a new unit has, LOCK off included; your saved sounds and loops stay, and a sound edit you have not saved is lost. Among those defaults the steps need the Classic chord keys (B3 is LOCK), the Chords keyboard, Key Mode off with Transpose at 0, LEDs on Glow and the LOCK layer's Ext keys on Toggle.

Three steps

Play D4. Tap LOCK, then hold MIN and let go. MIN stays lit. Every root is minor.
0:09
Tap m7, then 9. Both stay lit. D4 now plays D minor 9th.
0:17
Play F4, E4, then D4: a minor 9th on each. Your other hand is free.
0:24

One finger. Minor 9ths.

Good to know

Tap 9 again and the ninth comes off. Tap MAJ and the chord turns major, with the extensions cleared. Tap B3 again to switch LOCK off, which clears what it kept. The screen names the chord the Orchid's way, Dm with a small 7 9; with Options > Chord Names set to Standard it reads Dm9. Les is independent and not affiliated with M-VAVE, Telepathic Instruments or ChoralRoot's author. More on the FM-1 and its firmwares: https://les.audio/guides/m-vave-fm-1

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