When my daughter expressed an interest in learning the piano, we resisted the urge to buy her her own keyboard because, well, even older children lose interest in a new hobby sometimes. Instead, we passed on our 12-year-old electric piano keyboard from Yamaha that was gathering dust in my wife’s office. While my daughter did benefit from this, it did run into some issues with being out of tune, not being able to connect to devices, and generally being outdated tech. So, when the fine folks at Yamaha offered me a review unit, we decided to see if it was an improvement, and how much it helped. Enter Yamaha’s PSR-E373, and a musically challenged noob (myself) trying to evaluate this device with the help of a neophyte (my daughter).
First Things First
The first thing you need to know about the PSR-E373 is that you cannot buy it from Yamaha’s website at this time. You must order it through Amazon or another retailer. The second thing to know is that the keyboard does not come with a power adapter, and you must order it separately. Third, you can plug in this keyboard and play it without any need for tuning, programming, or any other finicky setup. Experienced piano keyboard players will be able to run straight from the gates, and learners won’t have to learn all the functions of the keyboard before they can start to learn. Finally, it doesn’t come with a stand, either. This was a challenge for us until we realized we could just use an old one, but you might want to consider ordering one if you don’t want your keyboard to live on the dining room table.
Good For Learning?
Our primary interest in using the new keyboard was to help my daughter learn how to play. With the Covid-19 pandemic raging, we couldn’t exactly send her to a tutor or music teacher, so it was important for us that she be able to teach herself using the keyboard without too much guidance from more experienced musicians or too much scouring the internet. Each of these notes comes from our firsthand experience with no outside help, so if you are using a tutor, or are familiar with Yamaha’s various devices, you will have a different experience on many of these features.
