A Tutorial for Yamaha Arranger Keyboard Owners

This section includes a variety of "lessons" to help you understand the features available to you in your PSR and how to take advantage of them. Originally written for the PSR-2000/1000, the lessons in the PSR Tutorial apply equally well to the PSR-2100/1100 and the current PSR-3000/1500 models even though these keyboards have some unique new features and have relocated the buttons on the keyboard a bit. Note that this fundamental operating system is also similar in the Yamaha Tyros and the Yamaha Clavinova pianos. Thus, these lessons will also be helpful to owners of these instruments as well. Where there are differences among the keyboards, they will be discussed within each relevant section.

Navigation

Lessons are divided into seven broad areas as shown by the tabs at the top of this page and in the navigation bar on the left. Click on any of the tabs to move to lessons in that area. These areas are described briefly below. Each of the major lesson areas is divided into one or more subsections. The subsections in each area will be listed in a navigator on the left so you can quickly identify your topic of interest and jump to that topic. If you prefer to browse the lessons in sequence, you will see a "Next" (and "Previous") button under the title of each lesson (and at the bottom of each page). Use these buttons to move forward (or backward) from lesson to lesson. At any time while going through these lessons, you can click on the major site sections (Performers, Styles, etc) shown at the very top of the page and jump to the home page for that section.

Start Here

You have your new keyboard and want to start playing a song right now.  Look here for some instructions that will help you get up and running right away.

Quick Steps

Yeah, yeah, all these detailed lessons are great, and you'll get to them someday, but right now, you just want some pointers to help you solve some problems right now.  The Quick Steps provide short, numbered steps to accomplish standard tasks. In-depth explanations are not provided here.

Exploring Your PSR

In this section you'll explore some of the basic features in your keyboard that allow you to make beautiful music. We'll introduce you to the built-in demos, that show off the voices, and, in the process show you how to navigate the main screen.  We tell you about all the voices included with your PSR and show you the difference between the various models.  If you haven't yet purchased your keyboard, this section will help you understand the difference in voices between the various models.  The voice section also includes a variety tables, and explains how you might go about selecting voices.

Exploring your keyboard certainly means trying out all those styles that come with the various PSR keyboards. We show you how styles are arranged and how to access them. In exploring styles, you need not be restricted to just the internal preset styles.  We will also introduce you to the opportunities available to expand your style library by downloading styles from the internet, including the thousands of styles available at this site.

PSR File System

Files are central to your operation of the PSR.  You need to understand what files are, how they are used in the keyboard, how you manipulate them (delete, save, copy, move, etc).  Lessons here cover the basics of files and the floppy disks.  You will also find discussions about the SmartMedia Card and USB port found on the new PSR-3000 models. Lessons on how to download files from the internet to your computer -- a necessary step to taking advantage of internet resources -- are also provided for novice downloaders.  Internet files are often compressed so they do not take up as much space nor do they take as long to download.  To be used, however, the compressed files have to be uncompressed to get the files back to their original format.  Review our lesson on WinZIP if you need help in doing this or if you need a link to the latest version of this compression utility.

Personalizing Your PSR

Your keyboard may sound terrific right out of the box, but after you've played it awhile, you may find that you want to change things.  You can, of course, change things right from the keyboard as you try to configure your keyboard for a song you want to play.  You've selected the voices you want, the style you want, the tempo you want and now have it sounding the way you want.  You don't want to go through that setup each time you want to play this song.  The Registrations section will explain how you can save your keyboard setups.

You may find a style you like, but you'd like to adjust that accompaniment style, just a bit.  You can learn how in our section on Adjusting Styles.  You'll learn how to use the Balance Control , Mixing Console, and the Master EQ in this section.  You'll also learn how to "fine tune" accompaniment styles and how to save your own OTS in a style.

Suppose you have a style you like, but you don't like the drum pattern and you'd like to replace it with the "drums" in aother style.  That's no problem with the PSR.  You can easily mix and match parts from different styles to create your own style.  You'll learn how in our Creating Styles section.  You'll even find a lesson that gives you some pointers if you want to actually record your own rhythm section.

Music Finder

How about if your PSR-2000 provided a bit of a hand in helping you select the styles and voices for a song?  It can do that.  The PSR-2000 comes with a built-in Music database with 450 song titles.  Simply find the song you want, and the whole keyboard is immediately setup, style voices, tempo, everything you need to just start playing that song.  This section introduces you to the Music Finder feature, explains the Music Finder file system and how to install the "correct" song titles, how to search for the song you want and how to edit records in the database.  You'll also learn how to use two key utilities, Music Finder View and Music Finder Editor, both freely available from the internet, that allow you to use your PC to modify the Music Finder database. Finally, you find a master mfd with 2,000 records that you can download and use in your PSR-2000.

Recording Songs

There is nothing more personal in using your PSR than to record your own song!  This recording section is a "growth" area where I expect I will be able to add additional lessons in the future.  As of now (Mar '03), there are only two lessons.  You will find quick steps on how to use the Quick Record feature to record your own MIDI file.  If you have already been recording your own songs, you will appreciate the lesson from Gary Diamond on how you can Make a CD by recording directly to your PC so you can make your own CD.

Special PSR-3000 Features

While a new set of lessons for the PSR-3000 is not currently available (much of the above applies equally well to the PSR-3000), there are some special features that are only available on the PSR-3000 and the PSR-1500. The pages in this special section cover these unique features. Of course, the first thing you may be interested in are some demos of the PSR-3000. Other lessons cover the Smart Media card, the USB slot, USB card readers and writers, and USB flash drives. You'll also find more detail on PSR3000 panel voices and the OS Upgrade for the PSR-3000. A special set of Hammond voices for the Tyros and 3K are available here as is an article of the MFC10 midi controller.

Lesson Index

On the next page, you'll find a Lessons Index to all the lessons offered in the various sections. You can review that index and click on any item to jump directly to the lesson you are interested in. There is, needless to say, an enormous amount of information provided here and don't feel like you have to learn it all immediately. It will definitely take some time, particularly since you'll find yourself tempted to play that keyboard as you try out and learn many of the features discussed in the lessons. However, even if you've gone through everything, there will still be things not convered. That is what the PSR Tutorial Forum is for. You can go there and post your specific question and out of the many hundreds of users who visit that forum there will undoubtedly be one or more who can help you with the problem you are encountering. Have fun exploring your PSR keyboard!!!!