Joplin: The Maple Leaf Rag (Concert Performer)Bk/CD [Paperback]

Scott Joplin (Author), Peter Pickow (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Concert Performer | Publication Date: December 31, 1999

AD COPY: Learn to play the famous Maple Leaf Rag with The Concert Performer Series which includes a special CD-Rom containing both audio and MIDI to help you practise for a truly great performance.
Track 1 contains an audio concert performance. This track is playable on any CD player or computer equipped with a CD-Rom drive and audio CD player software. Track 2 is a special audio 'study track', on which you'll hear the same performance as Track 1 at a slower speed. Listening to and playing along with this track can help you resolve questions of rhythm and interpretation as you are learning the piece.

Product Details

• Paperback: 4 pages
• Publisher: Music Sales America (December 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0825617472
• ISBN-13: 978-0825617478
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 8.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,875,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Grand Song: The Maple Leaf Rag, November 9, 2011

By 

Andrew P. Kluka (Chicago) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Joplin: The Maple Leaf Rag (Concert Performer)Bk/CD (Paperback)

So many people have heard this song and had no idea of it's name. It is one of the most recognizable tunes in the world.

Named after an African-American Men's club outside of St. Louis, this 1899 Ragtime classic was Scott Joplin's Masterpiece and was one of the most recognizable tunes in the World in the first half of the 20th century. It STILL is familiar to most Americans. It is used as part of the music in all types of entertainment forms, .... movies, cartoons, commercials, clubs and countless other applications.

Released in the Concert Performer Series as a single piece of music. It is highly recommended. A physically demanding piece, it stresses a bouncing syncopated left-hand background thru-out along with a winding right-hand melody line which DOESN'T bounce. This juxttaposition of two different hand playing syles can be difficult to master, especially at first. My first efforts were tortuously slow. After dozens, indeed HUNDREDS of repetitions, muscle memory in your hands, and intellectual memory in your eyes and mind make this piece a little easier but it still takes practice to get the two hands working properly, with the right hand smooth...and the left hand bouncing ACCURATELY from chord to chord.

Once you become more proficient, you will produce a song that is fun and pleasurable to listen to. Almost EVERYONE who hears it will know the tune and appreciate it. It is a joy to learn and play.

P.S. It is hard to find this piece in the single Concert Performer Series Release. It IS available in The Hal Leonard Concert Performer Compilation with CD for about $18 on Amazon. This IS avilable currently (11/9/11) and contains about a dozen and a half songs. A FABULOUS Investment.

This is one of the most physically demanding pieces I know. It takes TONS of repetitions to get it smoother...but there is tremendous satisfaction in learning this most joyous of Ragtime Classics.

Thanks to Hal Leonard for this publication. I'd give it 50 stars if I could.