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(More customer reviews)I'm a guy in my late 30s who's never learned to play any musical instruments or learned to read music or had any kind of musical training. I've always wanted to learn piano, though. So when my toddler son got a kid's keyboard from his grandmother for Christmas, it rekindled my interest and I started looking around Amazon.com to see if I could find something that'd work for me (hey, I'd cheerfully have co-opted my son's keyboard--goodness knows he got enough loot for Christmas--but the keys were too small/narrow for my hand; it's a kid's keyboard, after all).
I came across this Yamaha YPT-210 keyboard, and the price really surprised me. I didn't know full-sized keyboards from a reputable company could be gotten so affordably. It was also on a Friday sale, so that helped even more. So I went ahead and bought it.
Now, keep in mind that I'm pretty much an ignoramus when it comes to music, or portable keyboards, or quality of voices and songs and instruments and all that fancy stuff I'm just learning. All I can say is this: WOW. This thing sounds great. The Grand Piano mode sounds just like, well, a grand piano. Now, I'm sure Ms. Mitsuko Uchida (hey, I may be a musical ignoramus, but I do like to listen to classical music and have a decent collection) or even the music teacher at the local high school down the road will have no problem distinguishing this from a "real" piano, but it sounds great to me, and for my first keyboard, I'm just astonished by the quality of the sound coming out of the stereo speakers.
Then there are a multitude of instruments, sound effects, voice clips, noises. The variety feels a bit overwhelming to me, but I understand that this is one of the most basic portable keyboards Yamaha makes and the fancier models have even more. Yikes.
It comes with over 100 songs built in, all of which is available via the built-in Yamaha Education Suite (YES) 5 tutorial for you to try to learn to play. The YES works like this: 1. You listen to the song and get a feel for it; 2) you work on the tempo and try to press the right key at the right time; 3) then you actually play the piece, to the accompaniment of background beat and supporting music. The way step 3 works is that the keyboard waits for you to press the right key in right sequence. This is harder to explain than it actually is to do in real life. Say a song calls for "do-re-mi" sequence. If you press "do-do-re-re-do-mi," then only the first do, and first re, and first mi will play and sound. Of course your pressing all the other keys throw your tempo out of whack, and at the end of the piece, you get a rudimentary grade of how you did (OK/Good/Very Good/Excellent--Yamaha apparently believes in positive reinforcements only). Like I said, it sounds cumbersome explaining it with words, but in practice, it works surprisingly well. I was able to get a passable (for me) rendition of "Oh Susanna" going after only a few tries.
This is how Yamaha explains the YES feature on their website:
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Yamaha Education Suite(tm) (Y.E.S.): Learn How To Play Now!
The YPT-210 has 102 built-in songs for you to learn to play, using the Yamaha Education Suite. The songs are separated into left and right hand parts, providing 7 levels of lessons plus a convenient chord dictionary.
Three keyboard lessons for each hand:
* Lesson One - LISTEN & LEARN the melody or rhythm of a selected song
* Lesson Two - TIMING mode allows you to play the melody or chord by pressing any key using the correct timing
* Lesson Three: WAITING mode stops the playback of a song until you find the correct note and then continues
* Lesson Grading - monitors your progress as you practice each lessons two and three and gives you a grade.
* Chord Dictionary - shows you how to play chords and tells you which chords you are playing by displaying the notes and chord name on the LCD screen.
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You can either use six AA sized batteries or the supplied AC adapter. Be careful to make sure that the YPT-210 you're getting comes with an adapter; apparently there are versions of the YPT-210 that does not include the adapter. The manual recommends alkaline batteries, and warns that using rechargeable batteries may result in sudden loss of power when the charge becomes low (as opposed to alkalines, where the power loss would be gradual). I've tested it at home using six 1.2V NiMH AA batteries (the ubiquitous type used for digital cameras), and the keyboard worked fine. As long as, say, you're not performing in front of a crowd, I'd imagine using rechargeable batteries would be fine, especially if you don't have a ready power outlet near where the keyboard is.
The keyboard has connections for headphones, a foot sustain pedal, and computer MIDI interface, but the latter two are far, far down the road for me. I have found the headphone plug to be very useful, as I like to do most of my practicing late at night after the family's gone to bed.
Not having any experience with a regular piano, I can't really compare how the keys on this keyboard feels compare to a piano. All I can say is it feels good to me. The keys are firmly responsive when you press down on them. Again, I'm sorry I can't offer any meaningful contrasts; it feels comfortable and good to me as someone who's just starting out with it.
You can go to the Yamaha website to download the full manual in PDF format, and also see the specifications for the keyboard.
The only gripe I have so far is the volume control. It resets itself to a default volume every time you turn it off! The default volume happens to be fairly loud, and I do most of my piano practice (sounds fancy already!) late at night, so I've often found myself wishing for a volume control memory. If you hold down the "- Volume" button while powering the keyboard on, then it starts at a lower volume, but it's not as convenient as having it remember the volume setting. One way to get around this that involves a bit of equipment is to connect the keyboard to a receiver or tabletop stereo that has line-in for audio. Then the keyboard volume will always stay at the default (loud) setting, but you can control the volume on the receiver/stereo end.
Also, what this keyboard isn't: Keeping in mind that this is one of the most basic/affordable keyboards that Yamaha makes, I consider the fact that it doesn't include a sequencer (recording your playing) or strength-responsive keys (the keys sound the same, whether you press softly or forcefully) to not detract the overall value and performance of the keyboard.
All in all, I am very, very happy with this keyboard and look forward to learning to play piano/keyboard on it.
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