What is a MIDI song and what can it do?

MIDI songs are song files that act just like the demo songs on a keyboard. Unlike songs from CDs, iTunes or MP3 files, MIDI songs are versatile editable and you can do a lot more with them than just play them back. Below are some examples of what you can do with MIDI songs:

Learn Songs with the Guide Function

The Guide function available on many Yamaha keyboards lets you use MIDI songs to learn to play the keyboard. When you enable the Guide function, start playback of a song and play along, the song’s playback will wait for you to correctly play specific notes before moving on. Since smooth sounding playback is only possible when you play the right notes at the right time, the Guide function will help you with both your timing and accuracy. While the notes to play will be indicated in different ways depending on the type of MIDI song and instrument you are using*, but in any case the Guide function is a great keyboard learning tool that you can use with MIDI songs.

*For example, the Guide lamps on a Clavinova will indicate which notes will be played when, and Clavisoft music books have specific “trigger” notes marked in their scores.

Karaoke and Sing Along

MIDI songs with embedded lyrics (in many cases known as XF MIDI files) can be used as karaoke songs as well. Using these songs with either a karaoke player on your computer, or the screen from your keyboard, you can see lyrics precisely synchronized to the music playback of the song just like on a karaoke machine.

You can also use MIDI songs with the Karao-key and Vocal Cue Time functions on compatible keyboards to help practice your vocal performances. These features will help you with your intonation, measuring your pitch against the correct pitch of the song as it plays back.

Play Along with Performance Assistant

You can use MIDI songs with chord data (XF MIDI) with Yamaha’s Performance Assistant Technology (PAT) to easily produce great performances. With the Performance Assistant feature activated, load a song and then play any note on the keyboard. Then based on the rhythm of your playing, the keyboard will play back the song with the correct pitch.

Edit a song’s features or sounds

With a MIDI song and MIDI editor or keyboard, you can easily change any number of aspects of a song: key, tempo, even individual instrument sounds. You can remove certain parts of songs, or add on to them. It’s easy to remove melody lines so that you can fill in your own performance, shift a song down a few steps if it is out of your vocal range, slow it down or speed it up. MIDI songs are almost infinitely editable.