secret chords in Yamaha keyboards

2019/06/10 4:01 PM (UTC -5) | tildearrow

if you've been a Yamaha keyboard user, i'm pretty sure you know the style feature pretty well, but maybe you thought, "what happens if I input an invalid chord"? well, yes, unlike the rest of keyboards, it will work, unlocking some secrets of which will be discussed in this post.

suspended second chords

although modern keyboards may actually recognize this chord, the only two i've used do not:

Csus2

dyads for 5/no3no5 chords

hitting the following combinations will generate perfect fifth/no-third-no-fifth chords:

C5

Cno3no5

dyads for alternate bass notes

hitting the root note and a descending perfect fourth or a minor/major sixth will trigger an alternate bass note. this isn't displayed on the keyboard's panel but can be heard:

C/G

C/E

Cm/E♭

invalid chords

hitting these notes will confuse the keyboard, leading it to disable the accompaniment channel of the style. this can be useful in some cases:

C?

i'm updating this list to add some audio samples in a few hours/days.