Happy Feet Music
The foot-mounted wireless synthesizer/drum machine
Happy Feet Music

App Tour

Coming soon to the App Store.  Please use our contact form get an invitation to become a beta tester.

Coming soon to the Google Play Store.  Please use our contact form to request an invitation to become a beta tester.

No ads

We believe in a simpler, less invasive (less annoying) experience on the web and when using apps, so our app doesn't contain any advertisements or popups.  We don't collect personal information, although we do ask for your email address to add to our mailing list.  If you buy HappyFeet, we'll need to know your email and shipping addresses but we will never sell or share that information.  If you share a groove with the HappyFeet community, you can provide a screen name for others to see. 

Home Screen

The first thing to do on the HappyFeet home screen is connect to a nearby HappyFeet using Bluetooth.

Then, choose a play mode from one of these:

  • Single note: plays the 1st note on each foot tap
  • Alternating Note: alternates between the 1st and 2nd notes on each foot tap
  • Dual Voice: plays both the 1st and 2nd note on each foot tap
  • Groove: lets you define a percussion groove on the Groove screen
  • Bass: lets you make a bass groove on the Bass screen
  • 1-tap: choose a canned groove and play it by tapping your foot through a 4-beat count-in and then on the first 1 (auto mode on) or every one (auto mode off)
  • Practice: measure the accuracy of your timekeeping
  • Blues: play bass and snare drums along with a walking bassline.

 

You can choose the 1st and 2nd notes used with the dropdown menus.

Finally, press the music note button at the bottom of the screen to enable beats.  Press it again to disable beats.

Groove Screen

In groove mode, you can define a percussion groove with a number of beats (foot taps) per measure and a number of measures.  As you adjust these values using the pulldown menus, white boxes get added below, one for each beat.  Each row represents a measure.

You can choose one or two voices.  In two voice mode, two sounds are played at the same time.  When you choose two voices, every second row of the note grid will be orange to show the second voice.

Offbeat mode lets you play sounds on the offbeat between two beats e.g. on the “+” between beats.  When you turn on offbeat mode, every second blue box will turn purple to show that it's the offbeat.  Note that you can only use offbeat mode with an even number of beats per measure.

The equalizer icon takes you to a screen where you can customize the volume level for all of the percussion sounds.

Further down the screen is the grid where you choose the note to be played on each beat.  Select “-” for no note, or choose from these percussion sounds:

  • Bass drum (b)
  • Bass drum with echo (B)
  • Low tom (t)
  • Hi tom (T)
  • Snare drum (S)
  • High hat cymbal (H)
  • Cowbell (C) (the world needs more cowbell)
  • Tambourine (M)
  • Fingersnap (F)
  • Rim shot (R)
  • Shaker (A) (since we already used S for snare drum)
  • Woodblock (W)
  • Quijada (Q) aka vibraslap
  • Brushes (U)

You can also save your groove for use later, or load in a saved groove.

Bass Screen

In bass mode, you can define a bass groove with a number of beats (foot taps) per measure and a number of measures.  As you adjust these values using the pulldown menus, white boxes get added below, one for each beat, and one row for each measure.

Offbeat mode lets you play sounds on the offbeat between two beats e.g. on the “+” between beats.  When you turn on offbeat mode, every second white box will turn purple to show that it's the offbeat.  Note that you can only use offbeat mode with an even number of beats per measure.

Then you choose the note to be played on each beat.  Select “-” for no note, or choose from any two octaves of bass notes provided, from E1 to D#3.  E1 is the open E string on an electric bass.

You can also save your groove for use later, or load in a saved groove.

1-tap Screen

When you select the 1-tap play mode, it will bring you to this screen. In this mode, you choose a pre-defined rhythm.  It will show you a drum tab for the rhythm you chose.  You can learn more about drum tabs at http://drumtabs.org.  

The lead-in count shows you a number of foot taps to use as a lead-in.  Once you enable beats, the lead-in becomes active and will count each foot tap.  Tap your foot 4 times for the lead-in and then on each 1 after that.  HappyFeet will fill in the rest of the beats in that rhythm.  Remember to tap your foot on each beat 1.

If you have Auto mode turned on, you only need to tap your foot on the first 1.  Tapping again will turn off the beats.

Settings Screen

On the settings screen, you can adjust these settings:

  • Change the language of the app.  The current choices are: English, Français, Deutsch, Español, Italiano, Português, Nederlands, Українська.  Let us know if you would like other languages to be added; thanks for Flutter, it's very easy to do.
  • Turn on an audio test mode where the sounds are played when the music note button is pressed instead of when HappyFeet detects a beat.  This mode lets you experiment with grooves without a HappyFeet.  Note that you can't turn on auto mode if you are connected.
  • Turn on multi-mode.  By default, the app is in single mode where it will connect to the first HappyFeet it finds.
  • Enable the foot switch.  The foot switch lets you enable and disable beats by moving your foot quickly to the right or left.
  • Turn on auto mode.  In auto mode, 1-tap will play the selected groove continuously without you needing to tap your foot on the 1's.  Tapping your foot will turn off the groove and tapping again will turn it back on.
  • Choose the type of foot tapping HappyFeet should detect.  The default is heel tapping; you can use this setting to switch to toe tapping.  We choose heel tapping as the default since it's less tiring and easier to do consistently.
  • Turn on play-on-click mode.  When this is turned on, every time you select a note, the sound will be played.

There also buttons to go to the Info screen (see below) or to re-visit the introductory walkthrough (see also below).

Info Screen

You'll find the following things on the info screen:

  • the current version of the app
  • the serial number of your HappyFeet (if you are connected)
  • the RSSI (received signal strength indicator) of your HappyFeet (if you are connected).  RSSI measures the strength of the Bluetooth RF signals received at your phone or tablet.  If HappyFeet is very close to your phone or tablet, the RSSI will be around -40dBm.  If HappyFeet is further away, the RSSI will be lower e.g. -80dBm.
  • the model number of your HappyFeet (if you are connected)
  • the revision of the HappyFeet firmware (if you are connected)
  • a link to open the HappyFeet homepage in a browser
  • the battery level of the connected HappyFeet

There are also buttons to:

Multi-mode

In multi-mode, the app will scan for nearby HappyFeet for 7s, and then show a list of available HappyFeet.  The list will show the serial number (also Bluetooth ID) and the RSSI.  Click on one of the available HappyFeet to connect to it.  Usually, you want the closest one.

RSSI (received signal strength indicator) measures the strength of the Bluetooth RF signals received at your phone or tablet.  RSSI is affected by physical distance, and obstructions such as furniture or walls. If HappyFeet is very close to your phone or tablet, the RSSI will be around -40dB.  If HappyFeet is further away, the RSSI will be lower e.g. -80dB.

Blues Screen

In blues mode, you can define a blues groove with bass and snare drums plus a walking bass guitar.  First, choose one of the standard blues chord progressions e.g. 12 bar blues.  It will show you the chord progression as Nashville numbers e.g. I is the root, V is the fifth, etc.

The equalizer icon takes you to a screen where you can customize the volume level for the percussion sounds used (bass and snare drums) and the bass guitar notes.

Choose which key the bass progression will be in with the key dropdown.

As you play, the Bar, Nashville and Chord items will update to show where we are in the progression.

Finally, the lead-in count shows how many lead-in beats are left.  Once you enable beats by pressing the music note at the bottom of the screen, the lead-in count will decrease with each tap of your foot.  If you have auto mode turned on (on the Settings screen), you only have to tap on the lead-in beats and the first 1.  To stop the playing in auto mode, tap your foot again.  If you do not have auto mode turned on, you will need to tap on the 4 lead-in beat plus every 1.

 

Introduction