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Old 11-02-2009, 01:32 PM
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Sherry C Sherry C is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Bad Axe, MI, USA (The Tip of the Thumb of Michigan)
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Default Yamaha keyboards playing MIDI files in learning mode

Howdy friends,

A friendly customer at our helpdesk provided us with some insight into using Notation Musician (or Notation Composer) with their Yamaha keyboard so as to get files which can be used in the Yamaha's "learning mode".

To have MIDI files that can be used in the Yamaha keyboard's "learning mode", you'll need to set up the files properly. The main points are:
  • right hand part (treble staff) needs to be set to channel 1
  • left hand part (bass clef) needs to be set to channel 2
  • the MIDI filetype needs to be Type 0.

So, if you find a MIDI file for a song you want to learn, you can use Musician or Composer to easily set the channels for the staves (tracks) using Staff/Setup. (Side note: if you find a multiple-instrument file you want to use, you'll first want to create a two-handed piano reduction using Musician's or Composer's Part/Prepare piano reduction).

To set the channels for the staves (tracks) of the file:
  1. Open the file in Musician or Composer.
  2. Click Staff/Setup
  3. For the left hand (bass clef) staff, use the drop list in the "Chnl" column to set its channel to 2
  4. For the right hand (treble clef) staff, use the drop list in the "Chnl" column to set its channel to 1.
  5. Use File/Export as... to export the file as a .mid file.
Notation products save MIDI files in Type 1 format (yes, an "Export as MIDI Type 0" is on the to-do list ), but you can fairly easy work around this problem by using a free MIDI utility that converts MIDI File Format Type 1 to Type 0.

  1. Download the program named GN1.0 (file name gn1to0.zip) from http://www.gnmidi.com/gnfreeen.htm
  2. Unzip the gn1to0.zip file in a permanent directory in which you wish to save the program.
  3. Run the unzipped program named gn1to0.exe
  4. In the GN1to0 program, use the File / Open command to open the MIDI file that you saved in your Notation product.
  5. Click the '0' button in the toolbar of GN1to0. This will immediately convert the MIDI file from Format Type 1 to Format Type 0.
  6. Use the File / Save As command to save the newly converted file. Save it on a floppy disk if you want to immediately carry the MIDI file to your MIDI keyboard.
After you get GN1to0 set up, it's pretty easy to (1) set the channels of files you edit or create and (2) save the file as Type 0 to (3) take it to your Yamaha keyboard and use the "learning mode" there.

Enjoy!
Sherry
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