Changing chord recognition in mid-song?

[TedS]

Fingered 1 is the easiest chord recognition mode to play most songs, permitting Major chords with a single note while preserving access to the full repertoire of chord types, including slash chords, with a minimum of keys pressed. However, unlike some other brands, Korg does not allow playing of open "power chords" (1+5) in this mode, nor Unisons or other chords with 'missing' tones.

On my Pa800 I can work around this omission by using MIDI messages triggered by foot pedal to select a custom performance on the fly, temporarily changing the chord recognition mode to Fingered 3 or Advanced. The generic performance I'm selecting relies on parameter locks to change ONLY the chord recognition mode, leaving everything else unchanged, so it can be used without affecting the current style or song.

For some reason beginning with the Pa900 generation, Korg removed the "Style Preferences" section from its parameter locks. So on newer boards, I cannot use a custom keyboard set "mask" to change ONLY the chord recognition mode while leaving everything else unchanged. Sadly this reduction in features and flexibility has persisted through Pa5x v1.43.

The best solution would be for Korg to enhance its Fingered 1 mode to recognize open fifths when 1+5 is keyed. Casio and some other brands already acknowledge this fingering.

Alternately, they could restore the "Style Preferences" section to the Locks menu, so that a generic keyboard set summoned by MIDI could be used to temporarily change ONLY the chord recognition mode, as I do on my aging Pa800.

Yet another approach might be to add a dedicated pedal function that toggles between Fingered 1 and Fingered 3 modes (or between Fingered 1 and Advanced mode.) While the pedal is depressed and held, the chord recognition mode changes. When the pedal is released, it reverts back to Fingered 1 or the original mode. Roland had a pedal function like this for many years dating back to the 1990s.

Do any of you who purchased a Pa5X or other recent Korgs struggle with changing chord recognition mid-song? How do you address it?