PSR Performers
Who Are The Performers?
Over the years 85 PSR Performers have provided PSR Tutorial visitors with an incredible library of songs (5,500+ MIDI files and 2,500+ MP3 files) recorded on the various Yamaha arranger keyboards. You may be surprised at the wide spectrum of people who play and enjoy the Yamaha arranger keyboards. Some play by ear, some sight read, some use the full-fingered chord technique, some use only single-finger chords, some perform in public, others just play at home, but in all cases, they produce some wonderful music. Each performer's page has a short biography and photograph of the player. You may now have a chance to put a face to a name you are familiar with from the various Yamaha discussion forums.
All of the active PSR Performers are shown in the sidebar here (as well as on every PSR Performer page). Click on the any of the PSR Performer names and you will jump directly to that Performer's page where you have access not only to the current volume of songs but all earlier volumes as well.
You will find a "next" and "previous" button on each performer page that will allow you to step through all the performers one-by-one (in alphabetical order) if you prefer to browse the archive that way.
Are There Songs For My Keyboard?
Initially, performers were recording primarily on the PSR-2000, but over time, new keyboards were acquired and new Performers were added. Today, you will find songs recorded on almost all of Yamaha's arranger keyboard lineup including the top-of the line models (Tyros3, Tyros2, Tyros1, and 9000Pro) as well as the intermediate models (PSR-S910, PSR-S900, PSR-3000, PSR-2100, PSR-2000, and PSR-740). We even have songs recorded on Clavionva models. Download the midi files created on your keyboard model and they will sound exactly like the performer was sitting in your room playing the song. Of course, midi files are usually very general and any Yamaha instrument can play any of the midi files in the library. If the midi file uses some preset instruments that are not in your particular keyboard model, you can always use Michael Bedesem's MidiPlayer program to convert the midi file for use on your keyboard.
The table below shows the PSR Performers listed by their current keyboard. Note that many of these players have owned previous keyboards that they have used to record their songs. If you are interested in songs from a particular keyboard, say the PSR-S910, look in the table under this heading and select any of the artists listed there. The table also includes a list of archived performers, who no longer are contributing songs. However, their earlier contributions are still available on this site.
The midi files are meant to be played on a Yamaha keyboard -- they will not sound good played on your computer. Even if you don't have any Yamaha keyboard, however, you can still enjoy songs here that have been recorded and saved as MP3 files. The MP3 files can be played in your computer or MP3 player and will sound very much like the original sound coming from the Yamaha keyboard. Many performers have an MP3 "Jukebox" on their page where you can listen directly to their latest MP3 recordings. Earlier MP3 songs are available in an MP3 index on the performer's page that includes all their MP3 songs.
Alex Kruger-C2 | Dave Edwards-3k | Jaap Poetsma-2k | Paul Jackson-2k |
How Can I Hear the Songs?
As mentioned above, if a player happens to have a Jukebox on the page, you can hear any of the songs in the Jukebox by clicking on that song name in the Jukebox window and it will play directly on your computer. This direct play works fine for high-speed connections, but if you have a slow dial-up line, you may prefer to download the song to hear it on your own computer.
MIDI songs are provided in "volumes" of 10 songs each. The most recent volume for each performer is shown directly and any song in that volume can be auditioned by clicking on the song name. You will hear the song played on your computer, but this often does not do the song justice since computers can not replicate the sound of a Yamaha keyboard. You can download the midi file and then move it to your keyboard and listen to it on your own keyboard. If you click on the Volume Number, you can download all 10 songs in a single zip file. In this case, you must unzip the file to get to the original midi files it contains. They then can be moved to your keyboard and played there.
MIDI Song Index
All earlier songs by each performer are available individually or in a zipped file of many songs. Toward the bottom of the performer's page is a collapsible banner labeled "XXX's MIDI Song Index (click to open or close)" where XXX is the performer's name. By default this banner is closed. Click on it to open it. (Click again to close it.) When opened, you will see a table that lists all of the midi songs from this performer. Available zip files are shown at the end of the introductory paragraphy above the full midi table. Because midi files are so small, the zip files that contain all the styles are also relatively small and easily downloaded.
There are over 5,500 songs in the archive of midi files created by the PSR Performers. You'll find an index to all the songs in the "Midi Files" section in the second navigation bar at the top of this page. Of course, finding and downloading all of these songs can be a huge chore. If you are interested in midi files, note that ALL of the PSR Performer midi files are available on the 2011 Songs USB (along with all the MP3 files from 2011) as well as on the 2012 4GB Lessons USB.
MP3 Song Index
Performers who have contributed MP3 files also have an MP3 Song Index on their page where you can audition and/or download any of their MP3 files. A "Jukebox" on the page holds recent songs and you can listen to them online while you read the page or visit other web pages. An alphabetical index of all the Performer MP3 files is available in the "MP3 Files" section in the second navigation bar at the top of this page.
If you are interested in becoming a PSR Performer, please send email to Joe Waters (jpwaters@gmail.com) with some sample midi files.
