Write your own melodic sequences

In Complete Scale Fluency, a melodic sequence comes down to two things: a pattern, which is a handful of notes, and a shift, the rule for where the pattern starts again. Module 6 builds a whole panel of dials out of that idea and then asks you to invent sequences of your own. Until today, the Melodic Sequence Explorer could only play the fifteen I'd built into it. Now it plays yours.

How it works

Choose Custom… at the bottom of the Sequence menu, and a row opens under the controls with three things to set.

Pattern. Number the notes from the lowest one in the pattern, which is 1, the way you'd count them out loud. 1 2 3 is groups of three, 1 3 5 runs through the triads of the scale, and 3 1 2 plays the notes above and below a note before landing on it. A dash is a rest and an underscore holds a note longer, so in eighths, 1 _ 2 3 is a quarter note followed by two eighths.

Shift. How far the pattern moves each time it repeats: up or down, one to four notes of the scale. In a pentatonic, one step is the next pentatonic note, so the same pattern works in any scale.

Come back down. The run goes up and then comes back down. On the way back the pattern is flipped upside down, which is how the built-in up-and-down sequences work, and you can turn the flip off to hear it come back as written.

Everything else in the Explorer works with a custom sequence the same way it works with a built-in one: every key, scale, and method, the rhythm settings, the link in the address bar, and Add to practice.

A few to try

All of these are in A Dorian, the shape Module 6 uses.

• Rising groups that walk down the neck: 1 2 3 with a shift of Down 1, a sequence the built-in list couldn't play.
• The seventh chords of the scale: 1 3 5 7, one chord after another up the position.
• Threes with a long first note: 1 _ 2 3.

I also added fourths to the Sequence menu, going up, down, and up and back down. They're on the Module 6 dial panel and had been missing from the tool.

The new guide to the Explorer walks through every control, with screenshots. The Melodic Sequence Explorer comes with Silver, Gold, and Platinum memberships and with Complete Scale Fluency. If a pattern doesn't play the way you expect, use the Feedback button on the page and include the link from the address bar, and I'll look into it.