Yamaha P255 Manual

P-255 Owner’s Manual21
Playing Songs
Your digital piano can play built-in Preset Songs, User  Songs that you have recorded, and commercially available 
songs. These songs can be in one of  two different formats—MIDI or audio. 
Song Category list
*: Shown only when a USB flash dri ve has been plugged into the instr ument. 
**: Shown only when the USB flash dri ve contains data of the corresponding format. 
User Songs and Import Songs
The term User Song is  used to refer to songs recorded  using 
the instr...

Playing Songs
P-255 Owner’s Manual22 (Import Songs are shown only when the USB 
flash drive contains data of the selected category.)
 
•
Song number ...... Used to select one specific 
song to play. For details, see 
the table on page 21. 
• rnd  (random) ... Used when you want to play 
all songs of the selected cate-
gory continuously and in ran-
dom order. 
• ALL ..................... Used when you want to play 
all songs of the selected cate-
gory continuously and in 
sequence. 
3Press the [PLAY/STOP]...

Playing Songs
P-255 Owner’s Manual23
Part Cancel (MIDI songs)
Your digital piano’s Preset Songs and certain other 
MIDI songs are divided into left-hand and right-hand 
parts. When playing this type of song, you can turn off 
either of these parts as described below to practice 
playing it yourself. Practicing parts individually in 
this way makes it easier to master difficult pieces. 
1Turn off the part you wish to practice. 
When a song with left-hand and right-hand-parts 
is selected, both the [LEFT]...

Playing Songs
P-255 Owner’s Manual24
Automatic start when you play any key
Using your digital piano’s Auto Start function, you 
can have it start playback as soon as you play a key. 
To activate this function,  press and hold the [PLAY/
STOP] button for at least one second. The [PLAY/
STOP] button will begin to  flash at the current tempo 
to indicate that the instrume nt is on standby for a key 
to be played. (If you wish to deactivate the Auto Start 
function, again press and  hold the [PLAY/STOP]...

P-255 Owner’s Manual25
Recording Key board Performances 
Your digital piano features the following two different methods for recording your keyboard performances. These 
methods can be used as described be low depending on your requirements. 
MIDI recording
When you record a performan ce using MIDI, it will be saved on the instrument or a USB flash drive as a MIDI 
song (SMF format 0). This method allo ws you to record two parts separately, meaning that you could, for exam-
ple, create a song by...

Recording Keyboard Performances
P-255 Owner’s Man ual26
Typical part-button lighting pattern:
 When recording MIDI data:
If the selected song contains data, the [RIGHT] 
and/or [LEFT] button will light up. 
 When recording audio data:
There is no distinction between the different parts.
4Set the Voice you wish to use for record-
ing and set the time signature. 
To select a Voice, use the corresponding Voice 
button (page 13). If necessary, you can also set the 
time signature (page 19),  the Effect...

Recording Keyboard Performances
P-255 Owner’s Man ual27
When recording in MIDI, yo u can record the left-hand 
and right-hand parts separately as described below. 
1Set up the digital piano for recording. 
For details, refer to Steps 1 and 3 of the section 
“Simple recording of all parts (MIDI or Audio 
songs)” (page 25). 
If you have already recorded one of the parts, you 
can play back that part as  you record the other. To 
stop a recorded part from playing at this time, 
press the corresponding part...

Recording Keyboard Performances
P-255 Owner’s Man ual28 Using the following procedure, you can individually 
delete the left and right pa
rts of a recorded MIDI-for-
mat User Song. To delete bo th parts, refer to the sec-
tion “Deleting a User Song” (page 33). 
1Select the User Song from which you 
wish to delete a part. 
For details, refer to Steps 1 and 2 of the section 
“Simple recording of all parts (MIDI or Audio 
songs)” (page 25). 
2Press the [REC] button to activate 
Record mode. 
3Select the...

Recording Keyboard Performances
P-255 Owner’s Man ual29
3Activate Record mode and select the 
part whose settings you have changed. 
Press the [REC] button followed by the [RIGHT] 
or [LEFT] button. (If you have changed settings 
common to both parts, select  either the left or right 
part.) Verify that the selected part’s button is flash-
ing in red.
If you wish to change the tempo, reverb, or effect, 
please do so in this step.
To cancel the process without changing any set-
tings, press the [REC]...

P-255 Owner’s Manual30
Using USB Flash Driv es
With a USB flash drive plugged in, you can use your digital piano to perform the following tasks. 
• Listen to songs stored on the USB flash drive........................................................ Page 21
• Record your performances on the USB flash drive ................................................ Page 25
• Copy User Songs recorded on the digital pi ano itself to the USB flash drive........ Page 32
• Delete songs from the USB flash drive...