Being able to transpose your keyboard can be super helpful if you are playing with other musicians. In this article I’ll show you how to transpose your Yamaha P-45 keyboard up or down by semitones/half steps, and also how to tune your keyboard by smaller increments.
How to Transpose a Yamaha P-45 Keyboard by Semitones/Half Steps
To transpose the pitch down by a semitone/half step, hold down the Grand Piano/Function button and press the highest F key on the keyboard.
Continue pressing the F key until you have transposed the pitch down by your required number of semitones/half steps. The Yamaha P-45 keyboard will allow you to transpose down by a maximum of six semitones/half steps.
To transpose the pitch up by a semitone/half step, hold down the Grand Piano/Function button and press the highest G key on the keyboard.
Continue pressing the G key until you have transposed the pitch up by your required number of semitones/half steps. The Yamaha P-45 keyboard will allow you to transpose up by a maximum of six semitones/half steps.
Don’t worry if you lose track of how far up or down you have transposed your keyboard – you can reset it to normal pitch by holding down the Grand Piano/Function button and pressing the highest F sharp key on the keyboard.
How to Fine Tune the Pitch of Your Yamaha P-45 Keyboard
One of the advantages of playing an electric keyboard compared to an acoustic piano is that you can fine tune the pitch by 0.2 Hz increments. This can be incredibly useful if you are playing with other musicians so that you can tune to them, or if you are playing along to a recording at a predetermined pitch.
To lower the pitch of your Yamaha P-45 keyboard by 0.2 Hz increments, hold down the Grand Piano/Function button and press the highest G sharp key on the keyboard. Press the G sharp key as many times as you want to go down by 0.2 Hz, down to the limit of 414.8 Hz.
To raise the pitch of your Yamaha P-45 keyboard by 0.2 Hz increments, hold down the Grand Piano/Function button and press the highest A key on the keyboard. Press the A key as many times as you want to go up by 0.2 Hz, up to the limit of 466.8 Hz.
Don’t worry if you lose track of how far you have transposed your keyboard – you can return to the default A directly above middle C equals 440 Hz by holding down the Grand Piano/Function button and pressing the highest B key on the keyboard.
If you want to shift the tuning of your keyboard to make the A above middle C equal 442 Hz instead of the usual 440, instead of getting there in 0.2 Hz increments the quick way to get there is to hold down the Grand Piano/Function button and press the highest A sharp key on the keyboard.