If without ever really having heard ragtime you can just sight read through a book of rags or old-time songs and believe you can quickly capture the essence of them, then you are far superior musically to most of the world (seriously, not a judgment call) and should probably be teaching at Julliard or Berklee and composing microtonal operas based on derived quantum physics and string theories.
#BLACK CAT RAG PLAYER PIANO SERIES#
As Artie Matthews noted on his series of Pastime Rags, "Don't Fake!" If this music is approached with a careless or sloppy attitude, the quality of performance will suffer audibly and the result will be unfocused and undesirable. If you really desire to learn ragtime, then that level of enthusiasm should help to overcome the initial frustration you are likely to encounter. (See my Hanon Rag for a fun example of this). Never underestimate the curative powers of exercises such as those formulated by Czerny or Hanon for finger dexterity and rhythmic accuracy.
If, however, you have worked out the fundamentals of Bach preludes, Mozart sonatas, Chopin mazurkas, Debussy arabesques, or the like, you will be surprised how many elements of each of these exist in a large body of classic and popular ragtime. If your experience is primarily derived from reading out of fake books or simplified editions of pop tunes, don't expect the ability to read and play ragtime to come easily. Therefore, the ability to read music, while not critical, is certainly an inherently useful factor.Ī strong building block is the type of music you have worked with. People who learn by rote (listening to or watching and therefore learning by example) may have a more difficult time capturing the essence of pieces that they have not heard. Also important to the foundation is the content of what you've learned. Without the ability to read the music, or to be able to place your hands on the keys without being constantly conscious of the mechanics of playing, progress will be impeded and the ragtime learning curve will be inordinately steep. Foundation: Before you learn to play ragtime, what knowledge of and what foundation do you have for piano performance in general? Typically, children who have played for at least four years and young adults on up to seniors who have played for at least two years on a regular basis have some idea of how the piano works, and the relationship between the music and the physical note placement.Practice is fundamental, but knowing what to practice and the ability to set your goals realistically are also major factors affecting personal progress. This applies to virtually any form of music. How does one get to Carnegie Hall?" The gentleman wryly answered, "Practice young man, practice!". Obviously lost, he stopped a gentleman passing by and asked him, "Excuse me sir. T he old story goes that a young man was walking the streets of midtown Manhattan one afternoon.
As good is OK, but not better *sheepish smile*.
Many of us also have sheet music for sale of new and original material, all of which helps to support our site costs and allowing us to continue to bring you accumulated knowledge such as is presented here. One of the better learning techniques is to listen and learn from our live recordings, not just our web MIDI files or YouTube performances. See what they have to say, and remember to patronize our sites and take advantage of our products as you can. Where they are mentioned, please remember that many of them have a web presence as I do. Many of the ideas in here come not just from me, but from many of my ragtime compatriots and acquaintances. I hope that you find it useful in some regard, and that even a little bit of information may be derived from it. I have nonetheless attempted, in response to many ongoing requests, to compile a guide to learning and enhancing the performance of Ragtime/Old-Time piano pieces.
#BLACK CAT RAG PLAYER PIANO HOW TO#
The topic of How to Play nearly anything on a musical instrument is obviously broad, even more so on piano, and is therefore difficult to avoid tainting with the author's bias.
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