Piano Tutorial | Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag | Free Practice Notes Download

This video gives a detailed Piano Tutorial (plus a set of Practice Notes linked below) for Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag.
Friends will often ask us to 'play something' when there's a piano about. It's always a great opportunity to test out our performance skills. However, often, the piano and the environment aren't great, we need to choose something within the magic 3 or so minute limit and, from experience lively music goes down best. Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag fulfils all of these criteria and I think it is a great piece to learn. Equally it gives us practice in learning things with a left hand that jumps around a lot which we will find in lots of other repertoire.
This tutorial gives you everything you need to be able to learn it.
Download your FREE copy of the Practice Notes (email address will be requested): mailchi.mp/630b7f663077/01vv8...
I refer to The Perfect Wrong Note by William Westney in this video. It is an excellent read and I highly recommend it. You can get it from Amazon here : amzn.to/3UexJWR
I also have a full review of it on my Website : tommyspianocorner.com/the-per...
I refer to a number of my other videos in this Tutorial which are linked here:
Simplify | A Piano Practice Strategy : • Piano Practice | Simpl...
Learn How to Practice | Review of Graham Fitch's eBook Series : • Expert Piano Practice ...
Manageable Mistakes : • Piano Practice | Manag...
The Use of Practice Variants to Conquer a Piece (Top Piano Tips No. 2) : • Top Piano Tips | No. 2...
Tips for Small Handed Pianists : • A Pianist with Small H...
For ease of annotating my scores, I have used ForScore for many years now and have a detailed review of this application that will explain more if you'd also like to move to top class digital scores.
• Piano Practice: ForSco...
EQUIPMENT:
Full details of all equipment used are available on my blog at the address below:
tommyspianocorner.com/youtube...
Filmed on an iPhone 13 Pro - using the Filmic Pro app
Piano Audio captured on a Zoom F6 using a matched pair of Rode NT5 microphones (see my review of the F6 here : • Record Piano | 5 Reas... )
Voiceover captured on a Rode SmartLav microphone plugged into an iPhone 6S
Video editing done using Lumafusion
Audio editing done using Garageband (voiceover) and Cubase LE Elements (piano).
SOCIAL MEDIA:
/ tommyspianocorner

[@townnet]

Hi Tom, do you have any plan to make "The Entertainer" tutorial? It would be nice if the tutorial include how to pedaling for rag time music.

[@TommysPianoCorner]

I hadn’t thought to create one but it is a good idea. Let me work on it. I actually find the entertainer quite difficult as the octaves with an added third on white keys are quite awkward for my small hands. It will be interesting to work out how to overcome that challenge.

[@townnet]

@@TommysPianoCorner I also got small hand. I try this piece 3 years ago my hand feel uncomfortable then I give up. After 3 years I give a try for this piece again and magically my right hand can handle the chord better than last time.

[@TommysPianoCorner]

@@townnet I first tried it in my teens and have played a few times since. However the right hand still feels tight. I’ll give it another go to see if I can work out how to manage it :-)

[@townnet]

@@TommysPianoCorner You can watch paul balton playing. His hand shape also look a bit awkward even he got a big hand. Lol.

[@townnet]

@@TommysPianoCorner Btw you can mimic paul 2nd finger shape. I guess this might solve your tight issue.

[@townnet]

Hi Tom, what is the tips to bring up the voicing of right hand pinky? My thumb always make the sound too loud than the pinky.

[@TommysPianoCorner]

I think about it in terms of weight. As you play, imagine you are leaning into the pinky as opposed to playing straight down with weight distributed equally across the hand. The idea is that the pinky lands with weight whereas the thumb simply lands at the same time.
If you feel your thumb is louder than the pinky, try to recognize how you land on the keys. You will somehow be directing the weight into the thumb so if you can recognize how that feels, it should help you work out what transferring the weight to the opposite side of your hand feels like.
In a piece like this one, we’re playing the octaves from the wrist and forearm and so ‘finger strength’ isn’t at play - it is all about weight.
I hope that helps :-)

[@townnet]

@@TommysPianoCorner This is very informative, Thank you.😄

[@satyamuhammad3342]

What level would you say Maple Leaf Rag is?

[@TommysPianoCorner]

I’d say it is intermediate. It’s all very subjective of course but it might be around ABRSM Grade 5 or 6? Although there is no reason someone at a lower grade couldn’t take it on.

[@madmary]

Ooh. A favourite that I started some time ago and now you’ve inspired me to continue. Always love your videos.

[@TommysPianoCorner]

@@madmary so pleased to hear it. I too have always liked this piece but it was only recently I decided to put in the work to learn it. It goes down well at home as it’s a change from my usual classical repertoire.

[@silas4727]

ｐｒｏｍｏｓｍ 😍