Dawn

Since passing my Grade 8, I still go to my teacher to ask for pieces to learn. She’s given me the famous ‘Maple leaf Rag’ by Scott Joplin. I’ve never really played Ragtime as my main focus is Classical. On the sheets it says ‘ alla marcia’, however; when I hear others play it, it’s to fast to be a march. Also the pedal, should I use very little pedal?

A lot of Joplin’s rags, including this one, are also marked "not too fast" — which could mean anything. But I personally like it at a march tempo — the syncopations and right hand detail come out so much better.

Pedal VERY sparingly, if at all. If you must, pedal on the downbeat, but get off of it as quick as you can. Give the piece some bounce and clarity.That’s my opinion — there are hundreds of others, I’m sure.

Glinzek

Check out the MP3 track here: http://www.mfiles.org.uk/downloads/Maple-Leaf-Rag.mp3
Let me know what you think of it. Contact me for the sheet music if you want to take on this challenging grade 8/9 piano piece.

Good Old Scott Joplin…thanks for the Canadian content…

Maple leaf rag!!

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i learned to play it by ear perfectly in 7 minuites i need to know what the musical grade level is for this song.

Maybe you picked out the melody and the chord changes to the main theme in 7 minutes – but I am a multi-degreed, certified judge of piano competitions in NY. I sincerely doubt you have SEEN all of the original. And I agree with another responder – if you are such a slob in writing in English, then I would expect that your musical accuracy is similar in level. Prove us all wrong – post a YouTube of yourself – full body shot, and SPEAK before and after you play, so we can assess dubbing, etc. I’m *calling you out* on this one.

BTW – so you cannot say I did not answer – IF IF IF you could play this in its entirety, with appropriate performance stands and with scales and sightreading to match, it is a NY state NYSSMA) level 5.

An animation of balls playing Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag on a piano, done in 3Dsmax. Except for the camera movement, the animation is done entirely with scripts. I had to guesstimate when the notes in the audio file occurred in time, so sometimes the movement of balls is not perfectly timed to the audio.

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It’s in the key of Ab major. The LH goes from chords 1 – 5 -1 (perfect cadence). What does the RH use? It ends on a large Ab chord but what are the two chords leading up to it? What are there names?
Thank you

When discussing chords, it’s proper to use Roman numerals, so it should be written I-V-I. Arabic numerals are used for scale degrees and intervals.

In regards to your specific question, the chords are Ab-Eb7-Ab. The V7 is incomplete, as there is no 5th of the chord played.

I have six months to memorize First Movement form Sonata Op. 2 No. 1 by Beethoven, Concerto No. 1 in F sharp Minor Op. 18 first movement by Rachmaninoff, and a third peice for a big piano festival. I will be judged. I could eather play Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer (both by Joplin), or a different peice from the required list. I would realy love to learn one of these peices, but the problem is that I have a small hand and can reach an octive with my 1 and 4 which is requird to do in the songs. I will also be a senior in high school and will be taking part in many other activities. Should I cheat and play one of these wonderful peices and manage to cheat with playing 1 and 5 octives? Should I pick a boring one? *Sorry for the run on scentences.*

Maple Leaf Rag is more interesting to both play and listen to than The Entertainer. You do, however, have to play the right hand octaves with fingers 1 & 5, since the interior syncopation alternates 2-3 and 2-4.

And please remember Scott Joplin’s own edict: "Do not play this piece fast. Ragtime should never be played fast." He had to start having that actually printed on the sheet music because people were using his songs merely to play as fast as they could to impress people. The music is much better at a more leisurely tempo.

Rod Miller performed at Disneyland for over 3 decades. Watch as Rod performs Maple Leaf Rag at Coke Corner in 1993.
Sorry for the quality.

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Hi everyone, this is a re-recording of the maple leaf rag with less audio distortion. I hope that made it better. Unfortunately all your kind comments and ratings are gone, sorry!

About the speed: I strived to play it at this specific speed and I think it is appropriate and not excessive. Of course, you’re entitled to have your own opinion though.

This piece was learned and recorded in 14 days

sheets available at http://sheetmusicarchive.net/

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I’ve been trying to learn it, and I ran into the "Trio" part. My piece has notes that Joplin played that are optional. One measure is completely off though, it must be a misprint. What should I play? My teacher is stumped. She drew in the line between the first two…

On that one measure it seems to me that the left hand should play two eighth notes followed by a dotted sixteenth, a thirty-second note, and an eighth note (the enlarged image seems to show an enlargement in the sixteenth note line which would call for a thirty-second note if the line was cut in two horizontally).