Maple Leaf Rag Update

Maple Leaf Rag Update - 3/6/24

Maple Leaf Rag is coming together for me. It's been coming together for a while. I'm ready to graduate from "it's coming together" to "it's performance-ready." But I'm not there yet. I still have a few areas to attend to:

The D section (I have this section down pretty well, but I'm still stumbling a little at the very end.)
Sloppy left hand, particularly in the B and C sections.
Weakness in the 4th and 5th fingers in my right hand in one small part of Section A.
Transitions (I'm really close with these, but I'm not quite there yet.)
Consistent speed. (The C and D sections are new to me, so I tend to slow down when I get to them. I've also noticed that I'm speeding up in the B section without meaning to.)
Consistent tone. (Listening to this recording, I can hear that I don't press some of the keys down far enough, which results in a kind of spottiness of tone.)

For my most recent practice session (shown in the video below), I focused on the LH, working to get it cleaner and more even. I ended up playing through the whole piece at a slow pace, barely touching the notes in the RH and bringing out the LH. I think I get so focused on the RH that I kind of forget about the LH (which causes me to ignore it when bits of sloppiness creep in), and this exercise was a step toward remedying that.

If you listen, you will hear that stumble at the end of the D section, and you will probably hear my 4th and 5th fingers miss in the A section. And, while I'm doing better with the transitions between sections, you'll hear that they still need some work.

So, I'm getting there, but there is still work to do.

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