It's all in the "Book": Yamaha Delivers Digital Music Notebook

BUENA PARK, CA (September 17, 2004) — Yamaha Corporation of America announces the delivery of Digital Music Notebook, a PC software application that combines the world's best selling songs and learning methods with the convenience of immediate digital access.

Currently available at www.digitalmusicnotebook.com, the multimedia platform allows customers to view digital sheet music, graphics and videos; listen to audio and MIDI; and connect their musical instruments to their PCs to interact with the program.

Digital Music Notebook includes a free player that reads and plays sheet music and provides a graphic, real-time display of the notes on an on-screen keyboard. The online catalog includes downloadable and printable material from thousands of titles, plus methods for keyboard and guitar. Songs may be downloaded for a nominal fee, and public domain pieces are also available free of charge.

The online catalog is produced by YMH Digital Music Publishing LLC, a partnership between Yamaha Music Interactive Inc., Music Sales Group and the Hal Leonard Corporation. Digital Music Notebook is powered by a specially enhanced version of Sibelius Scorch, developed in collaboration with Yamaha by Sibelius Software, Ltd.

Digital Music Notebook is equipped with a list of interactive functions designed to customize program materials. Guitar and piano lesson plug-ins, performance assistance technologies, tempo control, song looping, recording, mixing and transposition features bring new life to a simple piece of sheet music. Users can also create and store custom song libraries.

"Yamaha has always strived to make the latest technology available to the public, and to make learning and playing music exciting and fun," states Jim Presley, marketing manager, Yamaha Portable Keyboards. "Digital Music Notebook gives musicians, of any level instant access to the music they want to play, along with the tools they need to make performing as painless as possible."

Beginning this fall, a promotional CD containing an introduction to Digital Music Notebook will be included with a number of new Yamaha portable keyboard products.

For more information on Digital Music Notebook, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Pro Audio & Combo Division, Portable Keyboards, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; or e-mail infostation@yamaha.com.