Guide
How to play the Fenophone
You play the Fenophone by shaping music as it grows — not by placing notes. You can't play a wrong note, so you can start just by moving things.
The one big idea
The Fenophone is always composing. Your job isn't to write the music — it's to steer it. You move a couple of controls and the music responds: more or less intense, wider or more focused, busier or calmer. You watch it change as you hear it change. That's the whole thing.
The Field — what you're watching
The big animated panel is the Field: a live picture of the music. Each row is a layer of the piece, the slowest at the bottom, and cells light up as their layer plays. It isn't decoration — it's the music, drawn. When you hear a change you see it here, and watching while you listen is how you learn what each control does.
The dials
Intensity and Spread lead — they do most of the work:
- Intensity. How much is happening — up for a fuller, more driving sound; down for sparse and calm.
- Spread. How wide and open it feels — low is tight and focused; high opens it out.
Grab a dial and move it slowly while you listen. The music follows you smoothly — explore until you find something you like.
Tempo and key
There's a small strip for the tempo and key you set — the speed, and the musical “home” the piece sings around. Nudge the tempo faster or slower; change the key to shift the whole mood brighter or darker. Anything already ringing finishes naturally. An Advanced control opens the rest — change rate, layers, flow, level, and a routing matrix you can edit — if you feel like going deeper, but you never need it.
Conducting — hold a layer
Here's the signature move: click a row in the Field to “pin” it — grabbing that layer and holding its state. Pin a slow row up high and it becomes a sustained build that lifts and blooms through the piece. Click again to release it. You're not placing notes; you're shaping the structure and watching the music grow around your choice. Held rows are marked so you can see what you're holding.
Capture and share
Made a moment you love? Capture it as a tile, and stack tiles into a little arrangement — mute one, solo another, hear them together. Capturing is free and your work is saved automatically, so a refresh never loses it. Then share: your friend opens the instrument in your world, ready to play and take somewhere new. (With the one-time unlock you can also share the exact take and export your music as audio or MIDI.)
A five-step first session
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Press play
Hit play (on a phone, tap the big “tap to play” over the Field). The Field is usually already moving, so you watch it come alive the moment the sound starts.
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Move the big dials
Slowly turn Intensity, then Spread, while you listen. The music follows you smoothly — there is no wrong note and nothing to break, so just explore until you like what you hear.
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Conduct a layer
Click a slow row near the bottom of the Field to pin it high, and feel the energy build and bloom upward. Click it again to hand the layer back to the instrument.
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Set the tempo and key
Nudge Tempo to change the speed and Key to shift the mood brighter or darker. Notes already ringing finish naturally, so a change never sounds like a mistake.
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Capture and share
Capture a moment you like as a tile, then share your world — a friend opens the instrument right where you left it, ready to take somewhere new.
On your phone
The full instrument plays on your phone: the Field is front and center and already animating, the big dials are sized for your thumbs, and capturing, the stack, tempo and key, and the deeper controls all work. When a bigger screen would be nicer for a long editing session, a one-tap hand-off carries your world to desktop.