Maple Leaf Rag - 3/13/24 Update

"Maple Leaf Rag" continues to be coming together.

I have reached a point where I'm thinking about style -- which octaves I will bring out, where I'll play forte or piano, where which notes in a chord I want to bring out most -- but I'm still also focusing on playing cleanly, without missing notes, without accidentally hitting more notes than anticipated, etc.

This video is an example of that. I'm still playing at a moderately slow tempo, and I'm focusing hard on playing cleanly and with an even tempo. I still have memory lapses here and there (particularly in the D section, which I learned most recently), and I still plunk a few notes I shouldn't, but it's coming along. I'm not worried that it sounds a little wooden; that's all part of the process.

This weekend, I'm going do another brief fast practice of it, and then I hope to spend most of next week continuing with "clean practice" while upping the tempo. I'm also planning to give that D section and the transitions some extra work this weekend since I clearly don't have them down 100% just yet.

I'm so excited about this piece! And I feel like I'm so close.

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Picking Up the Pieces

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