Yamaha Keyboard

Before you buy a keyboard you should be aware of your needs and understand what kind of keyboards Yamaha has to offer. Some of my student students bought keyboards and only then realized that they actually needed a different kind of instrument.

Yamaha Motif

The difference between digital pianos and keyboards is not so clear. Let me try to clarify.

What is a Digital Piano?

Basically, a digital piano is an 88 key digital instrument which imitates the sound and the touch of an acoustic piano. Yamaha has two main kinds of digital pianos - CLP Clavinova, and CVP Clavinova. The first has very few extra features, and the second has many added features such as unique sounds and rhythm banks, accompaniments and more.

So remember that the main issue in digital pianos is theit ability to imitate a real piano. Click here to learn more about digital pianos.

What's a Keyboard then?

To being with, while a digital piano always has 88 keys, a keyboard may have 61, 76 or 88 keys. The word keyboard covers instruments such as Stage Pianos, Synthesizers, Workstations, Midi controllers, keyboards for beginners and more. Each of these instruments has its own unique features.

There are hundreds of Yamaha keyboards models. Let's have a look at the main groups of Yamaha keyboards and their special functions o.k.?

Yamaha Keyboards for a beginners

Yamaha EZ-200 Lighted Keyboard

Beginner who look for their first keyboard might need a simple instrument with 61 keys, and various electric features such as sounds bank, rhythms bank etc.

Simple keyboards often don't include touch response, but here comes the advantage of the Yamaha keyboards: You can find one that costs only $150 but includes touch response as well. As a piano teacher I find it necessary to have a keyboard that responds to the speed of falling to the key in order to produce music with dynamics. So I wouldn't compromise on this component if I were you.

I also recommend buying an economical instrument for younger children who just started to play music. It would be a shame to pay a big amount of money for an instrument when you are not sure if your child would like to continue studying and playing. But this changes from one student to the other.

Some of Beginner Yamaha keyboards include special learning tools, that can help you to teach yourself how to play the piano. YES - Yamaha Education Suite is a fantastic tool which comes with built in lessons for each hand, chord dictionary, and you can learn to play various songs with it .
Another special tool is the Lighted Keyboard. TheYamaha EZ-200 Lighted Keyboard teaches you how to play various songs by lightening the keys that should be pressed. This is a terrific tool for children. They love it!

You can even connect to the internet and download songs for your Yamaha keyboard. Children pick up this sort of thing very quickly, so these tools can be quite effective.

Yamaha EZ-200 Portable Keyboard Standard Yamaha EZ-200 Portable Keyboard Standard

Various models for beginners:

The Yamaha PSR keyboards series includes some models which are perfect for beginners. The Yamaha YPT series includes keyboards that are identical to the PSR keyboards. For example, the Yamaha PSR-E323 and the Yamaha YPT-320 are actually the same instruments with different colors. The reason for they created it that way is for having different labels aimed to different markets.

A Yamaha keyboard for a performer (portable)

Yamaha CP-5

There are so many models out there for you to perform with. The right instrument for a performer can vary from one performer to the other. If you use only the piano sound you will probably prefer a digital piano, but if you are interested in other features, well - the sky is the limit. Yamaha has synthesizers that can replace a whole orchestra! These synthesizers have hundreds of different voices, accompaniment styles and many other features that can help us professional performers. You can find a good and quiet effective keyboard that will cost you less than $1000, but if you're looking for the best you can find the Motif XF which costs more than $ 4,000. (That's the keyboard David uses in his piano lessons...)

One of the considerations when buying a keyboard for performances is its weight. The problem with digital pianos is that they often very heavy because of their Graded Hummer Action .Let me tell you from my experience that carrying a Clavinova for gigs twice a week might break your back! That's why Yamaha has produced a line of digital stage pianos that have the Graded Hummer Action in a lighter version. The CP series is portable, has a professional touch, sounds like a real piano and includes other electric features as well.

Here are some models of Yamaha keyboards for performers:

Yamaha YPG series.

The Yamaha keyboard workstation

Yamaha Tyros3

A keyboard workstation is like having a music studio in one instrument. It offers a range of music-making functions with which you can create almost all kinds of music. I remember the first time I was sitting next to the Tyros 3. After 10 hours I realized that I had forgotten to eat and drink. I was so absorbed that I totally lost all sense of time!

A workstation allows you to record, edit, and play back your songs without using the computer. It's very convenient having an instrument from which you don't have to shift back and forth between the keyboard and a computer.

Most workstations, including the Yamaha MO Series, feature 16-track MIDI recording in which you can create hours of music.

Yamaha Tyros3 Arranger Workstation Keyboard Standard You only need to pay Tyros3 once to get gig-ready styles and sounds created by renowned programmers and mixed by studio engineers covering numerous musical genres. It features 61-key touch-sensitive keys with aftertouch, Super Articulation 2 for realistic expression, 128 voice polyphony, 450 musical styles, USB port, 3.2MB internal flash memory, Song Creator with 16-track sequencer, hi-res VGA color screen, studio-quality DSP effects, 9 sliders, and records 2 stereo tracks to hard disk.

Here are some of the Yamaha keyboard workstations: