Home

TITLES

AudioVideo

AuthorJTR


JTRStory

Teachers

Articles

Reviews

Links

Janice Playing

 

Janice Tucker Rhoda's Biography

Janice Tucker Rhoda is the author of the popular instruction book series The ABCs of Strings and Complete Technique. They are published by Carl Fischer Music. 25th Anniversary! ALL TITLES

Her biography is included in Marquis Who's Who in America, Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in the World.

She has designed her path-breaking series to encourage students of all ages to play the Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass. Her method makes learning to play a bowed string instrument easy and enjoyable.

She has presented string teacher training clinics and courses at New England Conservatory of Music, McGill University, Penn State University, Royal Conservatory of Music, Vancouver Academy of Music, Cambridge Center for Adult Education, and USA educational music conferences FMEA, MMEA, NJMEA, NYSSMA, PMEA, TODA and TMEA.

Ms. Tucker Rhoda gave a Music Industry Showcase Session for Carl Fischer at the American String Teachers Conference 2015 in Salt Lake City, Utah featuring her Complete Technique series published in 2014.

She received a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from New England Conservatory of Music where her primary teacher was Eric Rosenblith, former student of well-known pedagogue Carl Flesch. She attended NEC's Preparatory School for 3 years studying with Professor Rosenblith before enrolling in the college division and studying with him for a total of 8 years.

Other luminaries she studied with include Nancy Cirillo, Rudolf Kolisch, Yuri Mazurkevich, George Neikrug, Daniel Pinkham, Gunther Schuller, Roman Totenberg and Benjamin Zander. Her Suzuki teacher trainers were Shinichi Suzuki, Joan Reuning, Lorraine Fink, William Starr and Carol Sykes.

She taught at Longy School of Music, Brookline Music School and All Newton Music School, serving as director of the Suzuki program at the first two institutions. She emphasized a "modified" Suzuki approach introducing note reading early using solfege syllables and letter names.

She served as an adjudicator for solo competitions at Longy School of Music.

She has taught Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass, and has accompanied students on Piano. She has studied Guitar, Flute, Clarinet, Recorder and Mandolin, and had years of private voice lessons beginning at NEC for college credit. She learned to read music at age 6 in a Massachusetts public school and sang solos in school plays and graduations before studying Violin at age 9.

Janice's Family History & Musical Training

Contact Janice Tucker Rhoda:
abcsofstrings@gmail.com


About The ABCs of Strings

Janice Tucker Rhoda's best-selling method series, The ABCs of Strings, was introduced in 1998. It encompasses Books, MP3s, PDFs, Digital downloads, CDs and DVDs for Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, and String Orchestra. The books combine melodies from classical music standards, folk and fiddle tunes, rock 'n roll and jazz, and improvisation, and Ms. Tucker Rhoda's original compositions of these various styles along with warm-up exercises, scales and study pieces.

There are simple graphs showing left-hand finger placement, and practice charts in all of the books. Each absolute beginner book has additional duets, worksheets for note identification and a glossary of music terms and symbols.

The ABCs of Strings is designed with student and teacher in mind, and is compatible with current and classic methods. Throughout the series, new concepts, no matter how tricky or challenging, are introduced in an easy-to-learn manner that is enjoyable for the student and teacher.

Students advance gradually, logically and thoroughly to playing proficiently in a way that makes learning a stringed instrument easy and fun. They develop a solid foundation from the beginning. Difficulty levels in the series range from absolute beginner to budding virtuoso.

Each method book of the main series, The ABCs of Strings, has its own companion book of easy piano accompaniments to help facilitate study and recital performance. Many of these main method books have downloadable PDF files of the piano accompaniment books, as well as downloadable MP3s of all the melodies. The ABCs of String Orchestra is a valuable tool for a beginners' first experience playing in a string orchestra. The ABCs of Duets book supplements The ABCs of Violin Books 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Janice Tucker Rhoda Complete Technique series of books for Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass was introduced in 2014 with rave reviews. Details and Sample Pages -- Review

PRINT ALL TITLES

The ABCs of Strings is for all ages. In the preface of violin book one, The ABCs of Violin for the Absolute Beginner, Ms. Tucker Rhoda writes: "To the adult student: I am convinced it is never too late to begin studying the violin. In fact, adult beginners learn to read music at a very quick pace, have excellent concentration and are highly motivated to practice."

Read her popular article Why do Adults Learn to Play Violin Quicker than Children?

Violinist Yuki Beppu began with the ABCs of Violin method series at age 4 with Ms. Tucker Rhoda. Ms. Beppu won the New England Conservatory concerto competition at age 10. She has performed for the President, and was featured on Good Morning America. She performs all 69 pieces from the ABCs of Violin Books 1 and 2 in The ABCs of Violin for the Intermediate Player DVD. Yuki's Story

Whether a Violin, Viola, Cello or Double Bass teacher teaches traditional classical, suzuki, abrsm, baroque, fiddle, jazz, rock, or klezmer, they all enjoy using the ABCs of Strings and Complete Technique Books, MP3/PDF downloads, Digital downloads, CDs and DVDs as main or supplementary material with their students.
Worldwide String Teachers

The ABCs of Strings is published by
Carl Fischer Music