The Partimenti Workshop
Unlock your creativity like the greatest composers!
Trust your musical ideas!
Create music quickly and efficiently!
Have fun creating music!
ENROLMENT OPEN NOW
Enrolment open for January 2025 workshop
Currently accepting students
This partimenti is from Fedele Feneroli’s Book 1 No 15. This is my realization of Fenaroli’s partimenti.
I love this partimenti especially because of the simple imitation at the octave in the opening four bars, but also because it just has a great tune!
The Partimenti Workshop
Document
Unlock your creativity like the greatest composers!
Trust your musical ideas!
Create music quickly and efficiently!
Have fun creating music!
ENROLMENT OPEN NOW
Enrolment open for January 2025 workshop
Currently accepting students
You are capable of composing or creating amazing, fascinating, incredible, stunning and surprising music.
Music theory can leave you feeling stuck or unable to create. Music theory doesn’t train your ear and can make creating music feel difficult. It might feel like you lack an intuitive sense of harmony. There is a disconnect between your thinking and your listening.
Partimenti will make your ear the driver of your music making. Step by step you will figure out how to experiment, play around with music and have fun while creating!
Are you interested in joining the workshop? Let’s talk about your goals and how The Partimenti Workshop can help you.
He talks several times about after studying partimenti the music just flowed out.
He also talk about how seeing and manipulating patterns that composers have been using for centuries becomes suddenly inspiring!
Steve was a student in the Wizarding School version of the partimenti workshop.
composer
Is this you?
- You are a good musician, but composing or creating feels frustrating.
- You don’t feel like you have an intuitive sense of harmony or melody.
- You have trouble generating ideas or trouble stringing your ideas together.
- You know some music theory, but it leaves you drawing blanks as you compose.
- You love making music, but you get bogged down with a pencil and manuscript paper or with Dorico, Sibelius, or Finale.
Partimenti can help!
- Partimenti helps you create ideas in real time!
- Partimenti can help you create more musical ideas faster than ever before!
- By creating music in real time your ideas will be coherent and connected to each other!
- By using basic tools—scales and intervals—you will end up using fewer tools to create more music!
- Learning partimenti will give you an intuitive sense of how harmony works and what note, chord, or harmony comes next.
You can trust the music that you write.
Some people have trouble generating musical ideas, the blank page stares back at them.
Some people have trouble connecting ideas, filling the whole page with ideas that don’t fit together.
Some people just can’t get started because composing is too frustrating or confounding.
Here is the partimenti paradox: by creating ideas faster, but listening to them deeply and with fresh ears, you will create more musical ideas, faster, and they will intuitively fit together.
“I highly recommend Ian as a fantastic teacher with an infectious passion for partimenti. His kindness, encouragement, and expertise create a supportive learning environment from the outset. As a composer and educator committed to fostering composition and improvisation skills in my own students, I consider the study of partimenti to be a vital yet often overlooked component in music education. I’m a classically-trained pianist with some experience in jazz and Indian classical improvisation, and through my studies with Ian, I discovered that partimenti was the crucial missing piece that I was seeking in my own education journey.”
You can create music quickly and efficiently and get more music written.
Get your music in front of performers faster!
Compose more!
Make more money from composing!
Get more commissions!
Have players and audiences fall in love with your music!
Hi, I'm Ian
I’m a composer, pianist, conductor and teacher and I will be your teacher and guide through partimenti.
I discovered partimenti when I went to France in 2013 to study with students of the legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger.
Partimenti changed how my fingers interact with my instrument, how my brain thinks about music, but most profoundly partimenti has changed how I listen to music and audiate—or listen in my head—to the music I’m creating.
I teach partimenti privately and taught the partimenti workshop with Dr. Joseph Sowa’s Wizarding School for Composers.
I’ve spent a decade teaching, researching, and studying partimenti and developing what I call partimneti thinking.
"Ian's natural instinct to unlock and reward students' creativity!"
bassoonist and content creator
Ten Bennefits of Learning Partimenti
1. Deep Understanding of Harmony and Voice Leading
- Partimenti exercises train students to understand harmonic progressions and voice leading as they “realize” the bass lines into full compositions.
- This approach cultivates an intuitive grasp of harmonic rules and how they guide musical structure.
2. Improvisation Skills
- By focusing on realizing bass lines with appropriate harmonies and melodies, partimenti students naturally develop improvisational skills.
- It emphasizes learning through “doing,” so students are trained to think on their feet and create spontaneous music, much like jazz improvisation today.
Beethoven (1770-1827) studied partimenti with his first teacher while he was still lived in Bonn.
Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) taught partimenti to her many students.
3. Enhanced Composition Techniques
- Composing from a bass line alone (as in partimenti) strengthens compositional techniques and encourages creativity within structured guidelines.
- This approach fosters a mindset where students think like composers and learn to develop melodic ideas, themes, and musical dialogues from foundational harmonies.
4. Integration of Theory and Practice
- Unlike conventional music theory, which often separates theory from practice, partimenti directly applies theoretical principles to real music-making.
- This hands-on method helps students internalize concepts like cadences, modulations, and sequences by practicing them directly.
5. Historical Awareness and Stylistic Understanding
- Partimenti provides insights into the musical language of the Baroque and Classical periods, connecting students with composers like Bach, Handel, and Mozart.
- By using the same training methods that these composers likely encountered, students gain a better stylistic understanding of early Western music.
6. Mental Flexibility and Musical Problem-Solving
- Partimenti encourages students to navigate harmonic and contrapuntal challenges, building mental flexibility and musical problem-solving skills.
- It allows for a “sandbox” environment to experiment within musical rules, enhancing analytical skills and the ability to think musically.
Quincy Jones (1933-2024) studied partimenti with Nadia Boulnager.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) studied at the Paris Conservatory.
7. Stronger Ear Training
- Partimenti encourages active listening as students must recognize bass patterns and harmonize them in real-time.
- This method enhances aural skills by training students to anticipate harmonic changes and recognize tonal structures intuitively.
8. Improved Sight-Reading and Fluency
- As students practice reading and realizing partimenti exercises, they improve their ability to read complex music at sight.
- This skill builds fluency at the keyboard and strengthens overall musicianship by reinforcing quick, informed decision-making.
9. Supports All Levels of Musicianship
- Partimenti exercises can be scaled in complexity, making them accessible to both beginners and advanced musicians.
- Even beginners can develop fundamental skills in harmony, while advanced students can tackle complex contrapuntal challenges.
10. Creative Independence and Confidence
- Partimenti builds confidence by equipping students to think creatively and independently, instead of simply following scores.
- This confidence extends to other musical activities, like interpreting music, composing, and performing, with a solid understanding of musical structure.
JS Bach (1685-1750) taught bass patterns to his students, just like partimenti.
Try This!
Check Out the Blog
Zingarelli’s Libro Primo, Partimento No 1
This week we are going to start a new series realizing authentic classical partimenti! Our first partimento will be Nicolo Zingarelli’s first from his libro
Get ‘Try This!’ in Your Inbox
Every Friday you will receive:
- a emailed partimenti lesson in your inbox
- learn sequences, the Rule of the Octave, and cadences
- learn how to deconstruct and reconstruct patterns at your instrument
- see how great composers use these elements in their compositions
Plus news, updates, and blog posts from The Partimenti Workshop.
Let’s talk!
Are you interested in joining the workshop? Let’s talk about your goals and how The Partimenti Workshop can help you.
ENROLMENT OPEN NOW
Fall cohort starting September 24, 2024
Enrolment is limited
By the End of the Partimenti Workshop
- you will compose and have recorded a figuration prelude
- you will master (with your fingers🖐️, brains🧠, and ears👂) the most crucial patterns to Western music
- you will learn many partimenti composed by Ian and the classical masters
- you will improvise dozens of short pieces
- you will be able to quickly and efficiently be able to assemble a piece of music
- you will have a strong harmonic intuition
- you will have a developed sense of counterpoint, line, and melody
- you will have tools to reliably create compelling melodies
- you will have tools to reliably create harmonies with direction and purpous
- you will be able to put into practice all the tools you have learned in your creative practice
The Partimenti Workshop
Workshops 1-12
Fingers 🖐️, Brains 🧠, and Ears👂
In the Partimenti workshop we will develop your skill and craft through partimenti and counerpoint.
We will learn the most common patterns in Western music:
- the Rule of the Octave
- many different types of cadences
- several of the most common sequences including the descending 7-6, ↓4 ↑2, ascending 5-6, and ↓5 ↑4
We will explore each pattern as counterpoint, exploring the many lines and melodies available
We will transpose the patterns, using simple tools, from major to minor and minor to major and to other useful keys.
We will mix accented dissonance into each line exploring suspensions, retardations, rhythmic displacements, and appogituras.
Each week we will apply what we learn to partimenti, composed specifically for the workshop by me, and integrate all of the patterns, counterpoint and other tools we have been working on and from previous weeks.
Workshops 13-20
Classical Partimenti
We will explore partimenti by the classical masters such as Fedele Fenaroli, Francesco Durante, Niccolò Zingarelli, GF Handel, Giacomo Insanguine.
We will continue to explore the Rule of the Octave, cadences, and sequences.
We will continue to explore the harmony and contrapuntal possibilities of each partimenti.
We will explore each partimenti through improvisation, semi-composition and composition.
Workshops 21-28
Compose and Record a Figuration Prelude
This session of the partimenti workshop I’m excited to be partnering with Canadian pianist Madeline Hildebrand who will be recording your figuration prelude!
“Madeline Hildebrand is an extraordinary young artist whose communicative skills convey the essence of all that she plays. Her pianism is of the highest level, and she has an instinctive understanding of beautiful sound.”
Jon Kimura Parker
Madeline is a versatile pianist, quickly becoming a top-pick as a soloist and collaborator across Canada and the US. She has appeared recently in concert with Philip Glass (Winnipeg New Music Festival), the Kronos Quartet (Mass MoCA), with Yarn/Wire (DiMenna Center, New York), and as a soloist for Music Toronto’s COSE series. Of her recent performance of Joan Tower’s Petroushskates at the Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend, Tower states, “I was really impressed with how Madeline navigated that part with such ease and power at the same time…IT was one of the BEST performances of that piece I have heard.”
Madeline recently completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance at Stony Brook University, NY, where she won the prestigious position as an IDEA (inclusivity, diversity, equity, accessibility) grad, crafting pathways through curriculums for new interdisciplinary degree programs, and devising service-learning projects for the music department.
Her formative teachers include Gilbert Kalish, Christina Dahl, Jane Coop, Judy Kehler Siebert, and Michelle Sawatzky. Her playing has taken her coast to coast in Canada and the USA, Italy, Romania, to Armenia and Georgia upon the invitation of composer David Braid, and most recently to the Netherlands.
Composing Your Prelude
CPE Bach (son of JS Bach and first rank composer himself) describes in his Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments “Here’s how my dad composed a prelude!”
We will use (both JS and CPE) Bach’s guidance to help us create a prelude that is entirely your own.
We will start by exploring many possibilities, then refine and narrow our choices with four workshops:
- Big Picture Prelude
- Playing with Figurations
- Choosing a Harmony and Adapting Your Figuration
- The Cadenza and Cadence
For weeks 11-14 we will have a 1 hour workshop and 1 hour of office hours where I can help you navigate the composition process.
How does the program work?
- The Partimenti Workshop is a 14 week program
- each week there will be two 1-hour live Zoom workshops taught by Ian Campbell
- all workshops will be recorded and available for replay
- you will have 24 hour access to all of the recorded workshop, materials, content and assignments
- assigned weekly meetings with your peer accountability partner
- access to a private community where your peers and I will provide feedback and encouragement
FAQ
The Partimenti Workshop will run between January and May 2025.
We will for 14 weeks we will meet two times a week for 1 hour each session.
We will be having two live weekly workshops that will be one hour each. The workshops will be recorded and made available to you.
You should be prepared for 3 to 6 hours of work outside of the workshops.
The workshops will be recorded and made available to all participants shortly after each session.
No, you don’t need to be a really advanced player on an instrument.
No, you don’t need to be really good at music theory.
No you don’t need really great ears before we begin.
Most importantly, you need to be open to trying to learn music in a way that is different than you are used to!
Other prerequisite are:
- late beginner / early intermediate keyboard skills
- being able to play independent lines in your left hand and right hand
- an understanding of major and minor scales and scale degrees
- I will send some preparatory exercises so you can become quicker with scale
degrees before we start the workshop
- I will send some preparatory exercises so you can become quicker with scale
- an understanding of diatonic intervals
- I also send some preparatory exercises to become quicker with intervals before we start the workshop
- ability to read treble and bass clef
Are you interested in joining the workshop? Let’s talk about your goals and how The Partimenti Workshop can help you.
ENROLMENT OPEN NOW
Fall cohort starting January 2025
Enrolment is limited
One-on-One Partimenti Lessons
Partimenti is a powerful tool for any musician to have in their toolkit!
One-on-one lessons provide a personalized path for musicians to grow at their own pace.
Lesson Structure
Our lessons can be tailored to fit your needs, but a great place to start is:
- Learning the basic partimenti rules:
- Cadences
- The Rule of the Octave
- Sequences
- Applying these rules to basslines and creating music through improvisation and composition.
- We’ll also listen to music and analyze scores that illustrate these principles.
Much of our lessons will be spent playing music back and forth, then discussing what we’ve played out loud.
Once we’ve covered the basic partimenti rules, we can continue with:
- Advanced partimenti rules
- Classical improvisation and composition
- Repertoire study tailored to your instrument and skill level
Note: You do not need to be “really good at theory” to start learning partimenti—in fact, an intense focus on theory can sometimes make it more challenging.
Piano Lessons
I offer partimenti lessons and piano instruction for beginner through advanced levels.
As a pianist and piano teacher, I can help students with both the instrument and partimenti technique. For beginner piano instruction, please check out my other website here.
All other Instruments
For students on all other instruments, I work with those at an intermediate to advanced playing level. You’ll need a solid technique on your instrument or to be working with an instrument-specific teacher in addition to our partimenti lessons.
Grow your ears, your creativity, musical flexibility, and your improvisation and composition skills.
THE PARTIMENTI WORKSHOP
Unlock your creativity like the greatest composers
The Partimenti Workshop is a safe place that welcomes people of all races, religions, gender identities and expressions, sexual orientations, and body types. We respect, celebrate, encourage, and nurture the unique musical and creative possibilities of each individual.
We acknowledge that we are gather, teach, make art and music on ancestral lands, on Treaty One Territory and that the land on which we gather is the traditional territory of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation and that our water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.
Copyright © Ian Campbell 2023-2024