Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Any teachers here using the Yamaha Education Suite?

I would appreciate any advice on how to get started on the Y.E.S.

I am an intermediate piano player, but piano only sofar. I would like to broaden my playing skills to cover ensemble piano.

The Yamaha Education Suite is specific to certain models of Yamaha's keyboards. Ensemble and educational features of instruments are brand-specific, so you'd need to find someone with experience on your particular type of keyboard.

Believe it or not, this is more of a "music technology" type question than a "piano teacher" type question. Piano teachers are generally trained to teach people how to do all the chording, reading, and improvising without the aid of technology.

You might have better luck asking around on a music technology forum or blog, or finding someone in your area with music technology expertise. Best would be a local college, especially a smaller one that offers non-major and community keyboard courses. The teachers who teach those kinds of classes are most likely to know the kind of information you're looking for.

If you're looking for advice over the internet, then it's best to ask very specific questions. When I first read your question "How do I get started?", my gut response was "Well, you open the book that came with your keyboard and start with lesson 1." If no materials were included with the keyboard, then you might check YouTube (a quick search showed some tutorials available.)

Another reason to be very specific is that people cover a very, VERY wide range of experience and ingenuity. When some people ask that question, they're wanting to know where the power switch is and don't really know what any of the buttons on the keyboard do. Others may ask the same question but know their keyboard's features very well, except for the Y.E.S. Some may need careful and constant step-by-step guidance and instruction from a teacher; while others simply need a nudge and a jumping-off point before taking off on their won.

I'll reiterate: A title like "Help with features of Clavinova CVP-55" would be more likely to get the right people to read your thread. Your title is still (accidentally, I know) misleading, causing the wrong people to read.

Thanks to Kreisler for the comments!

david_a, the Clavinova CVP-55 is an instrument that I happen to have. The ensemble piano feature of that instrument is what I want to learn. However, ensemble piano features in various versions can be found in many, many instruments from Yamaha, Roland, Korg, and others. The Y.E.S. teaches many things, including the Yamaha version of ensemble piano. The technical term 'ensemble piano' and the Y.E.S. are quite well known, just not in this forum, or so it seems.

He's referring to confusion with the even more well-known term "piano ensemble", which refers to music for 2 or more pianists played on 2 or more pianos.

There is no such source of confusion in this thread, as the subject line - as it appears in the list of threads - merely refers to the Y.E.S.

Apparently, there are no teachers in this forum using the Y.E.S.

There may very well be, or there may be ones who used it in the past but don't anymore - but they probably skipped reading this thread, because your title doesn't say what you want help with.

david_a, are you trolling?

Read the subject line, it is about the Y.E.S.
What I want help with is part and parcel of the Y.E.S.

Those terms are unknown to me, and though I'm not a skilled pianist I've been a musician roughly 50 years.

Google didn't help me much.

I'm guessing that by ensemble piano you are talking about using the additional bells and whistles supplied with some digital pianos to enhance a performance. I'm guessing because you haven't specified, and google isn't clear.

However, if that is what you are asking, it is indeed a legitimate question, and potentially a large niche market for piano teachers.

That question has come up on this forum, articulated more in the form I've just given, and we haven't seen anyone who specialized in this type of teaching. How best to teach that type of skill, and fit it into a curriculum of progressive technique and repertoire, is an interesting question to me.

If I've correctly guessed what you mean by ensemble piano, then the question of how to teach Y.E.S. is tertiary (secondary being whether to use it at all to teach ensemble piano. There may be far better approaches out there. )