You’ll be playing the Yamaha YPG635 in under 3 minutes from the moment you open the box, set it up, turn it on and click to the built in 6-track sequencer with pre-recorded songs. Tickle those ivory’s and experience a well designed keyboard that has the power of a full band at your finger tips.

INSTRUMENTS. Just imagine a keyboard designed to give you a great selection of authentic sounding instruments so convincingly real you’ll have a hard time keeping away from this keyboard. The more you play the more you’ll have a hard time of letting it go.

PLEASE YOUR CREATIVE SIDE. This is one of the best electronic pianos in this range. The weighted keys make all the difference, especially to those of you who are used to playing classical music. With an amazing 130 instruments, 360 XG voices and 12 drum kits to choose from, you’ll never run out of ideas for playing songs that will make you sound great

LCD DISPLAY. The YPG 625 also has a LCD display, it is used for the display of the lyrics as well as the notations and the LCD even comes with a backlight. It comes with the style of Yamaha and has a voice technology. It can be connected to other USB storage devices as it has USB connectivity.

SONGS. The songs which you compose are stored in the YPG 625 and the screen displays the lyrics of those songs which are XF compatible. This keyboard has as many as 30 built in songs and there are even 70 more songs in the CD-ROM, this is the education suite that is provided with this keyboard. It also comes with a wooden stand which will help you to place the keyboard at the right height.

BENEFITS. Keyboard and Product of the Year (Music & Sound Retailer)

GHS (Graded Hammer Standard) weighted action keyboard w/88 keys — giving you greater control of how your music sounds

Includes stand, sustain pedal, power adaptor, music rest

503 XGlite/GM voices including a “Live” stereo grand piano sample – giving you infinite possibilities of how you want your music to sound

Full arranger capabilities with 160+ styles and a performance assistant packs powerful accompaniment — like having an extra pair of hands playing along with you to give your song a rich and complete sound

16  track sequencer  for recording with 30 internal songs built in that will get you instantly playing along with these favourite songs

Yamaha Education Suite w/interactive lessons for keyboards skill development

Large blue backlit display with Score and Lyric display – read music with ease – no more struggling to try to read a screen that’s just too small

USB TO DEVICE: connect optional USB storage devices (for jump drives,..)- safely store your music on a portable device and take it with you as a back up

Dimensions (W x D x H) – 55.9″ x 18.3″ x 6.1″.• Weight with keyboard stand: 39 lbs. 6 oz – travel ready

Refined piano touch means you’re always in control of each note – make your song sound the way you want it to.

Portable so you can take it anywhere you want – take it to the camp, cottage — you’ll never bet without your keyboard.

A full review is here for the Tyros 4.

“I really can not fit in all the features, sound, styles and everything that is going on in the Tyros 4 as it really is simply so powerful. I think the are a few simple ways to sum it up. I believe anyone who hears this keyboard and questions if it is better than a Tyros 3 can not hear what everyone else can hear. It simply blows the Tyros 3 away. After 2 years of development I would not have thought such changes could have happened but Yamaha have done it again. My advice is to get your wallet ready as you will struggle not to want one.”

The MOTIF XF is the by-product of the original MOTIF, that has a decade long of modifications under its belt. The one aspect that stands out of the XF is its 714 MB of internal Wave ROM that produces realistic sounds of pianos and acoustic instruments, old-school synthesizers and hip hop beats that most producers are using, thus making it the largest internal sound library to be ever placed in a keyboard. Its intricate 8 element architecture with expanded articulation alongside 18 filter types lets the user mold its sound in any way they prefer. The 8 front panel side of the MOTIF XF makes it even simpler to use in real time, and its built in 1664 voices and 97 drum kits makes the XF even more suitable for producers.

What really makes the MOTIF XF stand out is the additional 2GB worth of content that a user can load onto optional Flash RAM expansion modules. All stock and downloaded tracks are instantly saved in these modules and is readily available to use until the user decides to replace them.

Many users have praised the ultimate keyboard, MOTIF XF. They find it appealing to the ears and the instrument has a range of features that can create music that rival the ones that are made using highly professional but old gadgets. Many users are impressed with the MOTIF XF as a whole but are requesting for an increase in memory so that more sounds and pieces can be recorded by those who need it.

There are still a lot of innovations the MOTIF XF can provide to its users. By far, the MOTIF XF is probably and will always be the best piece of electronic instrument a producer or any musician can imagine. The sky is the limit for XF and there will always be room for it to improve and making it better throughout the years. The artists themselves are witnesses to what the MOTIF XF have done not only to their career but also the breakthrough in music and to the craft that they love.

The Holy Grail of sounds for the electric piano has been creating the sounds and playing experience of the concert grand piano. Has the Yamaha AvantGrand N3 found the right mix of sound and playability. Keyboard mag gave a first look review of the piano.

The conclusion was:

“Yamaha has set a new benchmark for what’s possible in a grand piano substitute, and by a dramatic margin. The elephant-in-the-room question is, “But is it worth the price?” One naysay is that you can find a more-than-decent baby grand for the same money or less. Having lived with an N3 for six weeks, and repeatedly compared the N3 at my local piano store to many sizes and makes of acoustic grands in the showroom, I found I needed to step into the six-foot (and at least $30,000) league to hear something compelling enough to make me forget that the AvantGrand will never need tuning nor react to temperature and humidity, and can be turned down for quiet practice. Point being, the AvantGrand sounds and plays so authentically that even purists who’ve historically dismissed such standard digital piano selling points have ample reason to think again. With aplomb, Yamaha has pulled off not just a major technological leap, but a seeming contradiction: a virtual piano for people for whom nothing but a real piano will do.”

So they seem impressed by the piano and what it can do. The advantages of having a digital piano, quiet practice, control over sound. With the feel of the grand piano.

The only con that is mentioned is the “lack of multitimbrality, arranger features, and lesson functions” that are sometimes included in top of the range pianos.

Performances are difficult works can inspire a pianist and give a challange which in tern speaks to the audience.

“The most satisfying aspect of Taka Kigawa’s performance at Le Poisson Rouge  on Monday evening was the sense of clarity and apparent ease he brought to a parade of harmonically thorny and, in some cases, texturally dense piano works. He gave himself no breaks in this short but intense recital. You get an idea of how difficult the program was once you realize that the least demanding score Mr. Kigawa played was the Webern Variations (1936), a piece that taxes both the technique and imagination of a pianist intent on winning an audience to its charms. ” NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/arts/music/26taka.html

Have you ever wished that your piano sounded like Alicia Keys? Well now it can!  This programme created with Alicia Keys, along with specialists in the industry, captures the soulful piano sound that has become Alicia’s trademark sound. With Alicia working alongside the creators, she was able develop it to meet her recording needs. This means that when using it to record, you will be experiencing the sound and quality of a professional.

The sound was sampled from Alicia’s own playing and recorded in her own studio, with her own Yamaha C3 Neo piano. Other features of the product include an optional feature that samples fingers hitting the keys, sustain and release features to get the authentic quality of pedalled piano and natural mechanical release noises for each of the 88 keys and pedal noises.

This is available to purchase for around £82

For more information visit Native Instruments

Glee music songbook with 17 songs from hit show Glee. The music features piano arrangements with vocal and guitar aswell.

Songs included in volume 1:

Alone                    Heart
Bust A Move               Young MC
Bust Your Windows          Jazmine Sullivan
Can’t Fight This Feeling     REO Speedwagon
Dancing With Myself          Billy Idol
Defying Gravity               Stephen Schwartz
Don’t Stop Believin’          Journey
Gold Digger                    Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx
Hate On Me               Jill Scott
Keep Holding On               Avril Lavigne
Maybe This Time               Kander & Ebb
No Air                    Jordin Sparks with Chris Brown
Somebody To Love          Queen
Sweet Caroline               Neil Diamond
Take A Bow               Rihanna
Taking Chances               Platinum Weird
You Keep Me Hangin’ On     The Supremes

Buy now

As a beginner, it can be hard to decide what kind of keyboard to buy. You may not want to spend too much but at the same time you want something that will last past the first 6 months. Today there is such a wide variety of instruments that it can be a confusing process.
Here are a few tips to help you decide:
• The keyboard should have full sized keys. Even if you have a young child who is starting, they will soon grow out of smaller keys, and the chances are the keyboard they use in their lessons will have full size keys.
• Ideally if you want the keyboard to last longer than the first 6 months it should be touch sensitive.
• 61 keys minimum, this will be enough to last a couple of years, but anything less will be out of date almost as soon as you start

Some sight reading tips:
- look at the time signature
- look at the key signature
- check the starting note and finger number for each hand
- check for dynamics
- check any other performance directions
- don’t start too fast! A steady speed is always better

Buy piano exam books from Amazon,

Below is a link to where you can find great prices for online sheet music.

Also for all the organists out there here is a video that features some nice playing. Enjoy.