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Yamaha PSR-E273 Is the Ultimate Beginner’s Arranger Keyboard
ANAHEIM (January 16, 2020) ― Yamaha has long led the musical instrument world with keyboards that teach aspiring musicians notes, melodies, and chords — all while blending in the fun factor of being a one-person band. The company's new PSR-E273 Portable Keyboard is no exception, combining all these features and more into a compelling family-friendly keyboard that delivers quality well above its price to beginners of all ages.
The better a keyboard sounds, the more engaging it is to play. The PSR-E273 features 401 high-quality Voices spanning all types of acoustic and electric instruments, including 17 drum and special effects kits in which different sounds play on different keys. The PSR-E273's sonic variety lets everyone explore the sounds of pianos, organs, the orchestra, electronic music, non-Western music, and much more.
New to the PSR-E273 is Quiz mode, which prompts players to repeat notes, simple melodies, or chords, giving feedback on correct and incorrect answers and turning ear training into a game-like experience. This expands the Yamaha Education Suite (YES) of features found in many Yamaha home and portable keyboards. In the PSR-E273, these include note display for the 112 built-in songs (with a corresponding songbook available as a free download), modes to teach both pitch and timing, and the ability to pause song playback if the person playing along strikes a wrong note, resuming once the correct note is found. Another convenience is Duo mode, in which a teacher and student, or parent and child, can sit side by side and play the same range of pitches on either half of the 61-note keyboard.
The 143 auto-accompaniment styles cover all genres of music, from rock to R&B to country to classical to world and more, and put an entire backing band at the player's command. Change chords, and the band follows along. In addition, the Smart Chord function lets beginning musicians play these chords with one finger, then return to multi-fingered chords as their ability evolves. Accompaniment playback can be synced to start when a key is pressed, and the player can trigger intros and endings as well as introduce fills into the style. All this makes the PSR-E273 a powerful arranger keyboard for beginners and more advanced keyboardists alike.
Two kinds of recorders are built into the PSR-E273. A Song Recorder allows recording and playback of keyboard performance for practice and evaluation. Then, the Phrase Recorder acts much like the looper pedals popular with many of today's musicians. It records shorter phrases of music or rhythm (usually a measure or two in length), then repeats them continuously as the player keeps making music. With the Phrase Recorder, very modern-sounding riffs and grooves can be created very quickly.
If all this becomes a bit too much fun, the Portable Grand button stops all accompaniment and song functions and returns the PSR-E273 to being "just a piano" at any time. Rounding out the PSR-E273 are crystal-clear built-in speakers, a metronome, a headphone jack for quiet practice, and an 1/8-inch stereo mini input for routing a phone, iPod, or other device through the PSR's speakers and playing along with favorite recordings. A music rest is also included.
"We believe the PSR-E273 is the best choice on the market for families looking for their first electronic keyboard," says Ben Harrison, marketing manager, Digital Piano and Portable Keyboard, Yamaha Corporation of America. "It has educational and entertainment features that are sure to keep kids engaged, and it sounds so good that their parents will enjoy it, too."
The Yamaha PSR-E273 (MSRP $199.00) will ship to retailers in April 2020.