and Nita Pelletier

Joyce Janzen and Nita Pelletier introduce concepts of keyboard harmony for levels 9 and up: Melody creation, reading figured bass, lead sheets, improvisation, and analysis. Also, how to prepare students in the earlier grades for the study of harmony and why keyboard harmony is the best choice for your students.   

Joyce has been a member of BCRMTA since 1983 and currently serves as its registrar. She teaches piano, theory, history, written and keyboard harmony, and analysis.  She enjoys the challenge of relating to each student as an individual. In addition to scoring and editing the Keyboard Harmony workbooks, Joyce has developed self-study workbooks for history courses.  

 Nita Pelletier has been a member of BCRMTA since 1988 and currently serves as chair of the Board of Examiners. Nita teaches piano, theory, keyboard harmony, history, and analysis and is active as a teacher and pianist.  Nita was awarded the “Heart of the Arts” Award by the Chilliwack Arts Council “ in recognition of her outstanding leadership and inspiration to others in the advancement of our community’s artistic life.”

Joyce and Nita have given presentations on various theory-related topics, both individually and together. Most recently, they presented “Introducing Keyboard Harmony” at the BCRMTA 2024 conference in Abbotsford.

In 2024, Joyceand Nita presented the same lecture on Zoom three times to various RMT branches in BC and Alberta. Nita lectured on“Teaching Dominant and Diminished 7^th chords” at the RCM 2018 Summer Summit in Vancouver. Some years ago, Nita lectured to high school and university students on the history and development of instruments as part of the “Instruments Alive” ensemble.