Skip to main content

Saturday Sound Track—Maple Leaf Rag

I was sitting at my piano, happily plunking away at Maple Leaf Rag, trying to find the notes and doing my best to keep a steady tempo, when I thought...how selfish of me to rob the blogworld of the joy I experience while playing this thing.

So, I have recorded my to-date feeble attempts to learn this piece--the first two of three pages with no repeats, because honestly, it's just too painful to have to listen to twice. Not only do I get to share the wonder of Joplin, but this very unpleasant recording will serve as incentive to continue working and improving--not just playing.

I warn you--this is not pretty. My left arm got tired soon after the page turn, and I found myself playing faster near the end just to get it over with. I promise to record this again if I get any better at it.

Listen Here

Comments

dive said…
Oh, Robyn, that is so wonderful!
Quite apart from the fact that you play it a thousand times better than I could, the page-turning just cracked me up and the giggle is so darned cute!
When you master it completely and post the finished piece I think I'll still prefer this version.
Thank you.
Isadora said…
Nice going! Congratulations. One must keep one's wits about them and turning pages to suit comfort level is certainly justified. :)
Gina said…
I'm not able to listen at the moment, but I'm sure it's not even half as bad as you say!
Mrs. G. said…
Nothing like a little piano music with my morning (well mid-day) coffee!
Bravo scout!!! Maybe your horn playing is a tad better but you have a music in your blood for sure.

Thanks for sharing.
Speaking of your horn playing... maybe we can get a sample of that soon -maybe a christmas tune or two?
Miz Minka said…
Page turning is such a pain. :)

There were quite a few measures in a row where you really got in the groove!

Had my toes tapping, you did.

Popular posts from this blog

Cindy Loo Who In October

What is it with people and Cindy Loo Who? Of my last one hundred blog hits, forty have been direct visits from regular readers, and fifteen have been as a result of people searching for "Cindy Loo Who," the little pixie from Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas . A couple of years ago, I posted an image of the original Seuss illustration as compared to the TV cartoon image, and for some reason, that post is bringing in the crowds, relatively. Maybe it's the weather. It isn't even November yet, and already we've had frost and have had to dust off our winter coats. When it gets cold like this, I start to think about Christmasy things like listening to Nat King Cole and decorating the tree. It's ironic because I am offended when retailers start pushing holiday stuff early, but I don't mind my own private celebrations. When my sister and I were much younger and still living with our parents, we would pick a day in July, close the curtains to darken the ...

The Ultimate Storyteller—in Life AND in Death

I wrote about The Autobiography of Mark Twain in yesterday's edition of Small Town Newspaper. You can read it here , if you want. This is the photograph I had in mind while I read Clemens' dictations. He really was a masterful storyteller, even when rambling on about the poorly designed door knobs in Florence or in describing the Countess Massiglia, who he described as a "pestiferous character." About her, he said, “She is excitable, malicious, malignant, vengeful, unforgiving, selfish, stingy, avaricious, coarse, vulgar, profane, obscene, a furious blusterer on the outside and at heart a coward.” And I laughed out loud.