Once upon a time, in the Kingdom of Naples, a land of sunlit streets and lively piazzas, musicians created an ingenious way to learn, teach, and create music. This method was not only efficient, and effective but—perhaps most importantly—fun! Just like kids build castles with Lego bricks, mixing shapes and colours to build an unlimited […]
Welcome to Try This! Your weekly exploration of musical patterns and partimenti rules. This week we’re going to look at how two master composers—Arcangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713) and Beethoven (1770 – 1827)—realized these patterns in their compositions. Here is last weeks post introducing the ① ④ ⑤ ①. Romantic Bassline Project Is there a
Welcome to Try This! Your weekly exploration of musical patterns and partimenti rules. Romantic Bassline Project Is there a harmonic moment that you love in Chopin, either of the Schumann’s Brahms, or Mahler. I’m in the process of analyzing all sorts of romantic period repertoire and creating basslines from that repertoire to explore, improvise with,
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope you and your family are well, that you’ve had the chance to spend time with people you love, and have had the chance to enjoyed some yummy food! I was the Music Director at St Mary’s Cathedral in Winnipeg for eleven years. One of my favorite parts of
This week we are going to work on the third phrase starting in bar 10. This is the last phrase we’ll look at here because the last phrase is the same as the first. So this week we will wrap up our work with Zingarelli’s first partimento. Here’s the whole partimento, make sure to play
Part 3 of 3: Zingarelli’s Libro Primo, Partimento No 1Read More »
Partimenti Here is my completed realization of Zingerelli’s first partimento. I kept this realization really simple, but it’s still tuneful and develops the opening idea. You’ll notice a couple things: Try It! and Get a Free Partimenti Lesson You’ve seen my realization, try one yourself. Grab a sheet of manuscript paper or copy the bassline
My Realization of Zingarelli’s Libro Primo, Partimento No 1Read More »
Partimenti Workshop 2025: Open for Registration! I want to let you know that the Partimenti Workshop 2025 is now open for enrolment! This workshop will get your musical creativity flowing, give you reliable and practical tools to improvise, compose, and understand music, and help you trust your musical ideas. Partimenti This week we are going to continue
Part 2 of 3: Zingarelli’s Libro Primo, Partimento No 1Read More »
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 primo (book 1). Take a look, try playing the whole thing through a couple times. Free Partimenti Lesson For the next few weeks we will be studying this bassline and
Part 1 of 3: Zingarelli’s Libro Primo, Partimento No 1Read More »
Quincy Jones was one of the most prolific and accomplish musicians of the twentieth century and studied partimenti in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He passed away last week at the age of 91. Here’s a link to his obituary. Since his passing, I’ve been listening to some of his music and interviews. Jones started off
This week we are starting with the Quiescenza. This is one of my favorite patterns, really I just love a good pedal point! Try This! The Quiescenza Are you up for a challenge? Next week we’ll look at some examples from the repertoire.
