Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Maple Leaf Rag -- need some feedback

Hello,
I'm relatively new to Piano playing and the first song I learned from youtube tutorials was the Maple Leaf Rag. It took me about 4 Months to get it down halfway decently. I just wanted to ask If I could get some feedback and maybe some hints how to play it better.. here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StMQXf3hBXc

First of all ... very good.

One thing I notice immediately is that you are rushing in places. This does not necessarily mean you are speeding up, but you are pushing the beat. So, at a quick tempo it feels like we are speeding up and looses the relaxing swing feel. A metronome will help fix this. More importantly though, just be aware of it ... it is common ... particularly so in performance when you have so many other things to worry about.

I see you are a first time poster, but can not imagine you are brand new to piano. Regardless, stick around and look into the quarterly recitals ... suggested.

Welcome, good job.

I'll second that. Good job!

If you're that much of a beginner (hard to be sure HOW much) then that is an impressive effort.

Can you read music or have you learnt this by visual mimicry or other means? Most of what you're playing, or aiming to play is accurate but you're making a lot of mistakes. OTOH, a lot of it is well within your technical span, even at this tempo. I think you need to decide what would be the best tempo for you based on the most difficult section, the trio, C section. So perhaps decide to take the entire piece at a slower tempo until you've perfected it?

You probably know where you're going wrong, where the playing is a little loose. Rather than playing through the whole rag, or even through one of the 4 sections in its entirety, I would practice small segments and learn how to loop those segments so that your practice will be efficient. There's no point in playing through bars 1-32 if your only difficulty is located in bars 7 and 8. Just set up a loop of bars 7 and 8 and practice those slowly. Focus your practice on the most difficult spots.

- incidentally, bars 7 and 8 and wherever else they occur have a Cb (aka B nat). You're playing (very accurately!) a C natural.

Very impressive. Also: is that really a Pfeiffer upright? If so, you've got something special..

Thank you for your feedback! Yea I learned this from a synthasia version of the Maple leaf rag on youtube by memorizing the keys played.. It is very possible that i have simply learned the wrong notes.. I was not aware that i was making that many mistakes.. except for timing etc.. Well as I said it was the first song that I learned from scratch on the piano in Spring 2013.. I stopped practicing in Fall and recently went back at it.. like four weeks ago trying to make it sound better. I cant play from sheet music.. so at the moment I relying on youtube tutorials.. anyway.. Yea its a Pfeiffer Piano I was not aware of the fact that its rare or something..

Anyway my goal it to get really good at ragtime.. at the moment I'm learnign the black and white rag.. next comes either Original Rags (wchich I like even better than the Maple Leaf rag) or the Root Beer Rag. Cheers and Im glad I could get some input!

It's rare outside of Germany and when in good condition it is the very best upright one can get.

Oh and I would like to add that this Piano is very much out of tune.. it hasn't been tuned for almost 40 years now and the keys are all probably off more that a half tone.. And I wonder if I should swing it more.. but I find it looses some of the syncopation effect.. (I dont know If I describe the right thing when I say syncopation effect.. but I like it better when played rather straight.

I can't comment on the "swing it more" and so on, I don't play ragtime yet and don't know of such a technique.

OT, On your piano: If the piano does not have other obvious large problems (cracked soundboard, missing parts and so on) it is very much worth to have it tuned and regulated. Pfeiffer is to upright pianos what Bösendorfer/Steinway is for grand pianos. New ones go for 20.000 EUR.

..it becomes increasingly difficult to swing as the tempo rises so, at your tempo, I would recommend leaving it as a straight 8s rhythm. It suits Maple Leaf anyway.

Here's a link to an older video I made. playing it slower.. a lot more mistakes but I played it a little differently that time.. If you're not interested in the funny part of the video skip to minute 6..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYJy5Onq5EM
The Wingsuit Piano Man

- very relaxed feel and because it's slower you're swinging it instead. You could play this rag really well but it needs a lot of polishing. I suppose it's possible that you'll acquire the extra needed skill by working on other pieces...it takes a lot of patience to stick with one piece when you're eager to learn others.

Thanks a lot! I am working hard on the Black and White rag at the moment, but play The Maple Leaf rag a lot in between..

Check the ascending arpeggios in the A section, I think you've got note consistently wrong. What you're playing has a major feel and that ascending passage is either a minor or diminished in the score.

You're playing the C section better than I can, but you're glossing over a measure or two in practice (right before the turnaround) and your otherwise rock-solid left hand is fumbling there.

While swinging is a valid option [that becomes more and more exercised as the jazz era begins], historically Joplin rags were written to be played straight and I'd say most of the ragtime experts I listen to tend not to swing their rhythms.

Yea I keep working on exactly that part at the End of section C with the left had and I'm not sure why Im having troubles there..

with regard to the major feel.. I wonder how much that can have to do with the piano being totally out of tune.. like really way out of tune.. it sounds extremely bad.. when I play along to other music from the laptop

I don't think it's the piano. It's specifically a missed note in the arpeggios of A7-8.

Lessee: each four note arpeggio should go Ab (LH), Ab (RH), Cb (RH), Ab (RH). This is basically an Ab minor arpeggio. You're probably hitting C instead of Cb.

Ahhh yes thats it! thx

I am just catching up to this thread. You have some great advice here already, so I will limit my response to as-yet unanswered questions. I will shorthand, because I need to limit the amt of time I spend typing. If it doesn't make sense, please ask.

Swing- you can do it. I play this piece rather fast (much faster than you did), and you can still swing at that speed. It becomes less pronounced in execution, but the sound will still be there. Be deliberate with the pedal so the sound doesn't get muddled.

C-section- the bar you're having trouble with. Ground the notes by following RH thumb. It doesn't leap anywhere and is easy to track mentally. (Also, bring it out for a nice chromatic line.)

Overall feel- needs more dynamics. Looser wrists will help, but it also needs a lot of shaping. Otherwise the LH gets into a boom-chic static pattern/sound. Check out diretonic's rendition in the Joplin recital.. very well played. Might give you some ideas.