Living up to my name

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My online name, Ragtime Rachel, is perhaps a bit grandiose considering I play the piano rather poorly, but there is one piece I play rather well, and that's Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag." It was the song I heard Eubie Blake playing one day when I was twelve--he did it, as I recall, as part of a PBS special--and from then on, I was hooked, hopelessly, on ragtime. I had never heard anything quite like it, and endeavored to learn to play, simply to play that kind of music.

With that in mind, I've uploaded to Divshare a recording of me playing the first two strains of "Maple Leaf" (I've never managed to master to tortuous C strain, but if I do, I'll link to it). Because my CP tends to get in the way, to minimize mistakes I played quite slowly, then speeded up the recording electronically. The result is quite pleasing, I think.

http://www.divshare.com/download/18386766-359

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Ragtime is composed of....

Ragtime Rachel's picture

...four distinct melodies, or strains, usually referred to by musicians as the A, B, C, and D strain. The pattern of a typical ragtime piece is AA BB A CC DD. What I was trying to say is that I could only play the first half of the piece, and that the third melody was difficult for me to play.

Livin' A Ragtime Life,
aufder.jpg

Rachel