I recently picked up a YPG-235 off Craigslist. One of the reasons I sought it out was for the “lesson mode” (or “Yamaha Education Suite”) where it helps you learn songs by displaying the notes and pausing the song for you until you hit the notes. You can do the same with a PC/iPad now, but I was hoping for a more offline experience. Sadly, the process to get new songs onto the keyboard is less-than-straightforward.. As I was unable to find a tutorial online on how to do this, here are the basic steps for you, Internet.
You’ll need a PC running Windows, as Yamaha’s music transfer software only runs on Windows. Install the USB MIDI driver for your keyboard and verify you can transfer midi files to it using their “Musicsoft Downloader” program.
Regular midi files will play on Yamaha keyboards, but they won’t work in lesson mode. The trick for getting files to play in lesson mode is to put the music you want to play yourself on Track 0 with the right hand on Channel 0 and the left hand on Channel 1. The file must also be in MIDI Type 0 file format.
Some free software for Windows that can help you out with a conversion: try MidiEditor to rearrange the tracks/channels and GN1:0 to convert MIDI Type 1 format files into MIDI Type 0.
Once you have the file in the right format you should be able to transfer it to the keyboard, reboot and it will appear in the song list and be playable in lesson mode. If you’re looking for free midi files try midiworld.com or hymnary.org. Good luck!