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Epiphone AJ-100 Jumbo Acoustic Guitar, Natural Review
 Mahogany body with Select Spruce top. |
 Rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays. |
Body Tonewoods
The top of the AJ-100 is made from select spruce, while the back and sides are constructed from mahogany, giving the AJ-100 balanced expression, warm bass, and excellent projection.
Rosewood Fingerboard with Dot Inlays
The fingerboard of the AJ-100 is constructed from rosewood. The resilience of this durable wood makes the fingerboard extremely balanced and stable, and gives each chord and note clarity and bite.
Angled Headstock
Unlike cheaper designs, all Epiphones feature a 14-degree headstock that gives you more pressure at the nut and so you get more sustain with less tuning hang-ups caused by "string-tree" gadgets.
Specs
Yamaha ARIUS YDP-V240 Digital Piano With Bench Review
New to the ARIUS line, Yamaha's YDP-V240 is an ensemble console digital piano with an 88-note keyboard and graded hammer-standard weighted action. Three-level stereo sampled voices deliver remarkably authentic sound, and a wide selection of realistic accompaniment is also on-board. A real joy to play, whether you're practicing or performing.
Just as on a traditional acoustic piano, the keys of the lower notes have a heavier touch, while the higher ones are more responsive to lighter playing. The keyboard's sensitivity can be further adjusted to match your playing style, allowing an authentic--and personalized--touch in a lightweight instrument. The black keys boast a matte finish, just to add to the keyboard's luxurious looks.
AWM (Advanced Wave Memory) is a sampling system that efectively captures the realism of an acoustic instrument through digital recording and high-quality filter technology. An acoustic piano's sound differs greatly depending on the playing strength - from pianissimo to fortissimo. AWM Dynamic Stereo Sampling helps mimic that dynamic nuance--the greater the number of samples used, the higher the expression.
Yamaha's highly acclaimed "Sweet" and "Cool" Voices deliver natural and very dynamic sound, with a wealth of voices to choose from--brass, strings, organs, synths, and more.
This instrument is set up with 131 voices (plus 361 XGlite voices) and 12 percussion kits, complete with 64-note polyphony.
238 types of DSP (Digital Signal Processor) effects can be added to the Main and Dual Voices. These range from reverb-like ambience effects to distortion and other dynamic processing tools. Enhance your sound, or completely transform it.
Each song has a default style, but the Easy Song Arranger feature lets you turn that on its head. This means that you can play a song that is normally a ballad as a swing jazz song, as a hip-hop tune, etc. Create totally different arrangements by changing the style of a song (you can also change the song's melody voice and keyboard voice for a complete makeover).160 different styles are on-board, along with 30 preset songs.
Play along with a song on the instrument's keyboard and produce a perfect performance every time... even if you play the wrong notes! Just keep in time with the music, and you'll sound like a pro. It's nice to take a break from learning every so often.
You want to play music in your favorite genre, but you're not sure how to select the best Voice and Style for the type of music you want to play... simply select the desired title from the Music Database and the panel settings will automatically be adjusted for the ideal combination of style/voices. Furthermore, this instrument can access Music Database files transferred from a computer or stored on a USB flash memory device. These files can be used right along side the internal Music Database titles.
The USB TO DEVICE port on the instrument allows you to connect USB memory devices such as flash drives or hard drives, enabling you to save or load registrations and user songs created on the instrument, as well as read data from the connected device such as MIDI files or Style files.
The USB TO HOST feature lets you dive in and take advantage of the wide world of computer music software. Computer connections and setup are exceptionally easy, and you can play back your computer-recorded parts with different instrument sounds--all from a single digital piano.
The dual headphone jacks are perfect for lessons, duets, and other applications.
Yamaha YDP-V240, Accessory CD-ROMs, Owner's Manual, Bench, My Yamaha Product User Registration
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Piano and Keyboard Method Review
This new version of eMedia Piano & Keyboard Method offers everything you need to learn how to play! Piano instructor, Irma Irene Justicia, M.A., who has taught at the renowned Juilliard School of Music, guides you through over 300 step-by-step full-screen lessons. New Instant Feedback works with both electronic keyboards and acoustic pianos! It listens as you play melodies and shows whether you're playing correctly!
The lessons start with the basics, such as hand position, rhythm, and playing on black keys, and move on to reading music notation, sight reading, scales, and much more. Techniques are demonstrated with over 70 videos viewable in full-screen mode.
Learn songs and exercises from music notation as an animated keyboard guides you through fingerings. Songs and exercises are provided as both live-recorded audio and variable-speed MIDI tracks which let you slow the music down as needed. Colorful MIDI accompaniments help make practicing fun! You will learn over 100 popular classical, blues, pop, and rock songs, including hit songs from artists such as Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, and Elton John!
Interactive review and ear training quizzes help reinforce new concepts and develop your ear. When used with an electronic MIDI keyboard, you get Interactive Evaluation Feedback with detailed specifics on your playing, including which notes and rhythms were wrong and how to correct them. In addition, the new Note Tracker shows you what note you're playing and makes learning music notation easy. This latest version also offers fully scalable lesson screens and an option for full-screen video. Other accessories include a built-in digital metronome and a recorder. eMedia Piano & Keyboard Method is the ultimate way to learn how to play piano or keyboard!
Shows you whether you're playing the correct notes on melodies. Works with both electronic keyboards and acoustic pianos!
When using a MIDI keyboard you get specific feedback on note and rhythm mistakes to help you get it right the next time.
Personalized reports show your rate of progress, including scores for specific songs. The built-in recorder also helps you hear your progress.
Displays correct fingerings as the music plays or for any note or chord that you double-click.
Features multi-track live recordings, colorful MIDI accompaniments and MIDI tracks that allow you to slow down or speed up the music.
"Piano Man" by Billy Joel
"Candle in the Wind" by Elton John
"Ode to Joy" by Ludwig van Beethoven
"America the Beautiful" by Samuel Ward
"La Bamba" made famous by Los Lobos
"Minuet in G" by J.S. Bach
"Tishomingo Blues" by Spencer Williams
"The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin
"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan
"We found the software well planned and effective -- progress was quick."
4 ½ stars
"An impressive and thorough piano teaching program."
"We tried out the method and within no time we were actually playing songs, something that we had no idea we would be able to do so quickly. It is simply amazing."
