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Reena Esmail

Composer

Pedagogical Materials

I have always cared passionately about my work as a teacher. Over the years, I have developed a variety of teaching materials to fit the needs of my students. In addition to the music and textbook listed below, I have developed curricula for many levels of theory and ear training classes (some of which involve multimedia) for young musicians, through my work at Manhattan School of Music Precollege.

Music

  • Children’s Suite (2003)
    for solo piano – four movements (7 minutes)

    a series of short pieces for the intermediate and curious
    piano student, exploring new techniques and sounds on
    the instrument, these pieces highlight tactile elements of
    the keyboard, and are best taught by rote.  

Scherzo
  – emphasis on the various characteristic rhythmic patterns of 5/8
  – some work with double thirds
– basic octave and chromatic scale passages
https://www.reenaesmail.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/childrens-suite-scherzo.mp3

Adagio
– chromatic scales with octave displacement
  – basic tremolando
  – slow hand crossing work 
https://www.reenaesmail.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/childrens-suite-adagio.mp3

  • The Etude Project (2006-2007)
    for solo violin
    Having begun studies in violin at age 24, I was keenly aware
    of how much I had to learn. As I progressed, I wrote this series
    of etudes for myself, to help gain proficiency and dexterity with a
    variety of technical challenges, while also learning to write for
    violin from the ground up.
  • Eleven Unlikely Stories (2007)
    for combinations of violin and piano
    based on Italo Calvino’s novel “If on a winter’s night a traveller”

5. “…looks down in the gathering shadow…
for piano alone

Textbook
And On That Happy Note…
a young person’s guide to the study of counterpoint
(more information to follow)

 

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