"Weeping Willow" was my first Joplin rag when I came back to piano twenty years ago, so I think it's pretty easy. "Heliotrope Bouquet" is pretty easy, too.

I just love "Magnetic" and "Maple Leaf," though considerably harder, and I haven't quite mastered either of them. My small hands tend to choke on the four-note chords toward the end(about two measures on the last line of Magnetic.

Darn my small hands! There are just some things I can't play at all because I haven't got the reach.

Bonnie Granat
http://www.GranatEdit.com

Bonnie, Bonnie - cheat!

But I know what you mean. I have small hands, too, and my left hand is now comfortable reaching an octave, but my right hand still has a little way to go. For The Entertainer I did for the last ABF recital I played 6ths in the right hand if the 3rd was on the bottom of the octave span, and the octaves were "splashy" as one person put it But the sound is less satisfying to me than if I could put in all the notes that are there to be played. Now I'm working on Binks Waltz - besides being a lovely waltz it's good exercise for octaves in my right without the extra notes. But even there there's a couple of white notes in between the black ones that I can't get.

So I'm like you - there's just some things I can't play at all.

Cathy

When I first heard Chopin's Etude Opus 25 #9, the "Butterfly", I thought, man, this sounds just like ragtime!

It was Maple Leaf Rag that got me into serious piano lessons at the age of about 30. Previously I had only played "by ear", improvising, knocking out tunes, mainly in the key of C. When I heard Maple Leaf Rag (in the 1970s ragtime enjoyed a period of rediscovery, when Rifkin, Bolcom and others were cutting LPs) I thought, I just have to play this! Quite rusty again now, though, which is why I'm starting afresh.

By the way, anyone know why that Etude got nicknamed The Butterfly?