Yamaha PSR-E273 61-Key Portable Keyboard

The Yamaha PSR-E273 is a portable keyboard with a host of features designed to make learning easy and fun for beginners and aspiring musicians. The unit sports 61 full-size keys and 401 realistic sounds that are exciting and interesting to play, including acoustic and electric instruments, drums, sound effects, and a grand piano. The 143 auto-accompaniment styles put an entire backing band at your command and are able to follow chord changes in a wide variety of music genres, from rock and R&B to classical, country, electronic, and many other genres. Begin by using the Smart Chord feature to play chords with one finger, and then return to multifingered chords as your playing evolves.

The PSR-E273’s Quiz mode expands the Yamaha Education Suite (YES) found in many of the company’s home and portable keyboards. Quiz mode prompts you to repeat notes, simple melodies, or chords, giving you feedback on correct and incorrect answers—turning ear training into a gamelike experience.

The LCD displays notes for the 112 built-in songs (with a corresponding songbook available as a free download). It uses learning modes to teach both pitch and timing. The keyboard can pause song playback if you strike a wrong note while playing along—resuming once you find the correct key. Another convenience is Duo mode, in which a teacher and student (or parent and child) sit side by side and play the same range of pitches on each half of the keyboard.

Built-in speakers deliver a clear sound, while the headphone output provides you with private practice or playing. The 3.5mm aux-input jack allows you to plug in a phone or MP3 player and play along with your favorite songs through the unit’s speakers.

The PSR-E273 features a Song Recorder, which offers traditional recording and playback of your performance for practice and evaluation. A second recorder, the Phrase Recorder, operates more like a musican’s loop pedal. It records a short one- or two-bar phrase, then loops the phrase continuously, so you can improvise over it—a fast and easy way to create modern-sounding grooves and phrases.

For total portability, the PSR-E273 can be powered via six AA batteries. It can also be powered by a PA-130 AC adapter (power supply and batteries available separately).