GlowGrain
felt piano · marimba · warm light · repetition that blooms
tap to resume
just the felt piano
C3–B5
How to play (start here)
- Play one note and let it ring. That's the whole instrument. Slide Bloom up a little and the piano's strings start to sing back, then the instrument begins answering your notes: a soft marimba echo, a warm note beneath, in the key.
- Play a short phrase, twice. Two to four notes is plenty. The marimba, and later the piano itself, pick your phrase up and circle it, one note at a time, against the beat, so it keeps drifting and becomes hypnotic. Change a note and it follows you.
- Think pads, not piano. Press Pads: eight pads that only play notes from the current chord, so nothing can sound wrong. Tap rhythms on them like a kit: low pads are the root, third and fifth; high pads are the melody.
- Guide is on. The glowing keys fit the chord now; other notes are dimmed and anything outside the key is nudged into it. The four dots by Bloom are the beat: 1 is the big one. The chords change slowly (every two bars) so you have room to play.
- Bloom opens in order: resonance, companions, marimba, bass, pad, a Latin pulse, a voice, then the muse. Space, echo and air widen the whole way up. Stay low for Frahm, go high for Hopkins and Bonobo.
- Loop it. Loop, wait out the count-in, play 4 bars. Press again to layer. Loops are tightened to the grid, and your companions play on top of them too.
- Sustain (or hold Space) keeps piano and marimba ringing and lets go by itself at each new chord.