Ode to Joy: The "Before" Performance

This is not really a performance.

It’s a sight-read—my second pass through Jonny May’s Ode to Joy. I first sight-read it yesterday while trying to figure out which sections would be the most challenging. Today I played it once more for the "before" video.

I’m posting it as a reminder: every piece I eventually play well starts like this. Slow, uneven, and occasionally unrecognizable as music.

What I’m Actually Working Toward

My main goal with this piece is to collect arranging “tools.” But I also want to learn the piece itself, because it’s too good not to. Right now, it sounds great when Jonny plays it. I assume it will also sound good when I play it, and hopefully it will feel great once it's under my hands.

That said, this won’t be quick. The left-hand jumps are manageable, but the right hand stays busy, and the tempo seriously moves.

A Rough Time Estimate

Difficulty-wise, Ode to Joy feels comparable to pieces like Jingle Bells Rag, America the Beautiful, or maybe Pineapple Rag. Those took me somewhere between 35 and 50 hours each. So I’ll estimate that this one will take about 45 hours for this one, based on my normal practice habits. There is no scientific basis for my estimate, but I think it's a pretty reasonable guess. The plan is to finish this one by the end of June, which would be a really nice way to end my 6-month deep-dive into stride technique. (Click here to see my first-half-of-2026 goals.)

How I’m Approaching "Ode to Joy"

I’m using Rebecca Bogart’s Learn New Repertoire Faster challenge and will track progress here as I go.

So far I’ve:

Completed a harmonic analysis
Mapped the overall structure
Marked sections by difficulty (red, yellow, green)
Recorded the “before” video

Next step is to divide the piece into batches: eight groups of three chunks each. After that, I start working systematically.

I don’t fully understand every part of the challenge yet, but I’ll explain it as I go. And it will be interesting to see if the challenge helps me to learn it faster than my estimated 45 hours. I hope it does!

The Video (Proceed With Caution!)

This sight-read is very rough!

Jonny’s recording (linked above) runs about 2:17. Mine goes well past ten minutes—and I didn’t even make it to the last page because I had to leave for work.

For most of it, the melody is unrecognizable. It starts to come through a bit in the four-on-the-floor section around 11:50.

Still, this is the baseline.

What's Next

I’ll post updates as I work through sections of the piece. Ideally, future videos will contain actual music!

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