Japan’s best-kept secret is now available for American bands. The Yamaha HD-200 Harmony Director is an ear-training device designed to help students understand how their individual notes fit into the chord, and as a result, they play more in tune.
“It’s extremely popular in Japan,” says Jonathan Goldman, product marketing specialist at Yamaha Corporation of America. “It’s the reason Japanese ensembles play so well in tune. The rhetoric is that it teaches you through example rather than words.”
The keyboard allows directors to demonstrate chords and isolate individual notes—each can be adjusted separately for volume and pitch. The device also contains a tuner and a built-in advanced metronome. “What it does is it demonstrates to the students,” Goldman says. “They can tune individual notes, but it shows students the difference in equal and pure temperaments. It shows the student how their individual note fits into a complete chord.”
The Harmony Director is also available in a HD-200 LS kit, which comes with a portable PA system, speaker stands and a rolling case. For more information, visit www.yamaha.com/band.
