Speaking of Billy, as we were, my husband has requested that I learn Root Beer Rag. (I think he's getting sick of Mazurkas, poor man.)

As a benchmark, I can play Maple Leaf Rag at a decent tempo, although it could be cleaner. Can me an amateur intermediate/advanced player.

I "looked inside" to peek at the first page of the music on sheetmusic plus. The bass seems simple enough--I'm guessing the trick is just getting the right hand up to speed.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Those are my thoughts exactly, from what little I know. For you, this should be a piece o'cake For me, it'll take a few years! But, I absolutely love this piece. I don't know if the sheet music I have is "official", but it's eleven pages!
That's a pretty crazy right hand, but I've heard you play - you can do it!

Curious to hear what you decide,
Tina

From a musical perspective you will find that this is a highly repetitive piece that is very learnable. The real challenge to the sheet music is the speed. You are just going to have to go through a lot of repetition to get it up to the spped you like.

I played it pretty well in my teenage years. However, I don't think I ever got it to the same tempo as Billy did without it sounding a little rough. I don't play it very often anymore, but my tempo would not even be close these days.

Thanks, Dean and Tina. Couldn't hurt to give it a try. I'm in the mood for something completely new to me.

Any chance of hearing this please? I cannot do theory so need the sound.

Alan (swingal)

Actually, I think I will be embarrassed of posting a recording of this right now. I haven't touched it in almost a year.

The man himself (he fools around a little before starting the actual Root Beer Rag)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHZR-2P4BEI

Thanks for posting that, Frank. (I think. )

I love how what he fools around with at the beginning is Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. So cool.