Learn to play "Maple Leaf Rag"

1. Intro joplin course 1272x720: Hi, I'm teaching resume, and I'd like to teach you to play two great piano works. Scott Joplin's also stop. I've got some bad news and good news for you. The bad news is, if you're completely new to piano, this is not a good idea to play these two songs. But the good news is on this side. I also have a class called Learn Piano in 45 days. It's a three hour classes, a great class. Take that. You learn all the basics and you'll be ready to play these two difficult works of the Ragtime era. I include all the sheet music, absolutely free. I also do step by step left handed you step by step, right and videos. I'm gonna go part by part, section by section. I learned this whole song very easily. Very impressive songs play for your friends and family arms. I hope you enjoy this course 2. Mapleentmus: Okay, students, let's look at the sheet music to both the entertainer and maple leaf rag Some of you are taking. This has a separate course some of you are taking. It is both. I'm just gonna show you the different sheet music options that you should print out. This is the first thing you should do, obviously is Get the sheet music. Let's look at entertainer first. Here we have the entertainer, and this is just the regular version. And you see, with this all of this is just the music, and there's not a single marking on it. There's a few measure numbers. There's this eight p a etcetera, but there's absolutely nothing on it. All this assumes that you know how toe read music to a point where you can write in the notes yourself. A lot of people take these courses and they know a little bit of piano. Some people have a lot of piano background, so you have a lot of piano background. Just print this up and just start playing to start going forward. However, if you don't, you might want to look at this version. Look at this same music, but all these little helpful hints here. You've got some finger numbers up here. Here. You've got the names of the notes written out. The s means sharp. By the way, in these cords, there's a few little help moments like same his line to, You know, I would print both of these out. Just have him side by side and eventually just play from the one that's not edited. In other words, play from this one. But this is kind of a cheat sheet version. Now let's look at make belief, Rag. Here we go with Maple Leaf Rag. Here we go. Make belief. And here's the version with nothing written on it at all. Okay, noticed this. Repeat, though I talk about this in the videos. Here's measure 16. Here's the repeat. You go all the way back to here. That's the first ending. And then that's the second ending. Okay, and then we have the edited version right here. I don't write every single noting because a lot of it is the same stuff. But look, I've got of sections marked when I go through Maple Leaf Rag to talk about the different sections. They're Section two. Here's kind of a guide to the left hand chords. I have some some notes written in right here. So which version you'd choose to start with really depends on your music reading ability. You might want to print up Blanca version and just right in some notes, and then check it against this. And, of course, you have the videos you can check it against. All right, so print of the music, start editing the music and then I'll see you in less than one. 3. Maple leaf rag left hand 1 1272x720: Hello and welcome to the left hand. One video for Maple Leaf Rag. I should start off this video series on Maple Leaf rag by saying that this is not a good piece to play. If you've never had piano in your whole life. Not a good idea. Check out my class. Learn piano in 45 days. Take that class, get familiar with the concepts in that class, and then you can start this. So I picked kind of an intermediate version of Maple Leaf Rag. This is not the original. It's not gonna be too hard. But it is a song that I really need to break down to you. And we're going to cover the left hand in several videos, the right hand in several videos and then how to put it together. Okay, if you're familiar with the f chord C seven court or maybe even the C chord should be fair . Fairly familiar with what's going on in the first part of Maple Leaf rag. I'm gonna play this for you two ways. I'm gonna play for you. What's written on the actual music? The second way I'm gonna play it is I'm going to show you more simplified version of the left hand to do this is on Lee going to Dio only gonna work in the left hand. I'm not going to do this in the right hand. I'm only going to this and left and the right hand You're gonna play what's actually written. But here's the actual written version of Left Hand knows that. Start with my five on See my three own effort and my 12 They're ready to go on a on DSI at the same time. So here's the written version. This is the 1st 3 measures. Uh huh. Okay, that one more time. What you're gonna notice first is there is kind of awkward stretch here, an awkward stretch here. You will have to get used that maybe like one more time they give you some better guidelines. Uh huh. Okay, First things in those Look at this three NF one and two on A and C then the next f. Look what I'm doing. I'm playing this with a four and then I get to a three on G. Now, why do I do this? Well, looking this way, if I keep my three on here. Well, that means I have to play to on this G. And so I don't have enough fingers for these guys. So you have to do that. Switch around on the F. So, like this four on F three on G thing, you're back to your original pattern that we do the same thing in for three on G five on C and then up to D flat on four. Two more sees a defect. Uh, okay. So worked through that. If you're if you're fairly proficient, piano, This should not be too bad. However, if this is really hard for you to do or if you have trouble putting this with the right hand in this pattern, here's simplified version. Watch this. Here's next measure. Here's the next measure. Next measure in the last two. I just do it the same way as before. Now I hope you notice what I did instead of doing this. I just did this. I blocked it. One big blocking notes. You just hold it down for the whole measure where you could do this one big block and outs . Hold it down for the whole measure. The advantage of that is You don't have to think about your left hand so much, you're just holding it down while you're focusing on the right hand, The disadvantages It doesn't really sound like, you know, Maple Leaf Rex sound like I mean, people would recognize it. They're going to recognize what you're doing in the right hand. But it's not. Doesn't sound really like Ragtime. It doesn't sound like the way Scott Joplin wrote things. So try both versions. If it's pretty simple to do the real thing, stick with real thing and I will see you when we look at left hand, too. 4. Maple leaf rag left hand 2 1272x720: Okay. Welcome back to Maple Leaf Rag. We are on left hand to this is the version that starts in measure nine. The part that starts to measure. So we're starting on f a flat. And don't forget, hopefully you learn this in my last course or somewhere else. That little symbol by the B that looks kind of like a square. And then, you know, lines going around the square. I really don't have best describe it. That's really called a B natural. So normally in this piece, the B is flatted, But in this case, it's going to be a natural. So you're not gonna play f a flat B flat? You play f a flat and be that's your first chord. Okay, let me just play all of the left hand too, has written just like I did before. Okay, so some familiar stuff, Hopefully you solving in measure 10. We're doing this f a c a lot, so I'm gonna go measure by measure has stated before we start off an f A flat and B, that symbol means natural. So we do this simply four times. Uh, then we move up to F A. C. I prefer to use 53 and one for F A C. Now this next chord FON bottom a flat here. Deflect. So, look, even if I see you move the third finger down the one finger up, you're an F a flat and D flat. You're back to your F A c noticed a natural symbol over the A. It's there because it used to be flat. It used to be this note were naturalized it to a way. Stay there. And then we have this court. Look, I move over C and B flat and in the effort. Then we continue. We've had this before. Continue way, Do the same thing way. Do the same thing pretty much has before. Okay, Now, if you want to do a simplified version, all you gotta do is instead doing bouncing it like that. If you heard the original song, that's how it does is those repeat chords. Just do this. Just hold that guy down. That next measure down, hold this one down. Then you change to this one then and the same thing. So two different versions of this try it the real way way Tried holding down way okay. And I will see you in left hand. Three in left hand. Three. We're going to start on the second ending. 5. Maple leaf rag left hand 3 1272x720: he rare in left hand. Part three. We're in measure 18. We're going to start at the last part of the second inning on this F sharp on, then going to measure 18. Okay, here we are. And that's from your stuff. Now, notice something. Aside from this f sharp that starts it off. A lot of this is just either this court or this court. Kind of like what she had the beginning. But it's a little bit different. Remember at the beginning. You did this. Okay, but this is a little bit different. This is back and forth. G B flat, C C B flat C g B flat. C C c. So we're doing this, Not this. Ah, A little bit of a difference, then on the F pattern. Same thing instead of this. We're doing this back and forth. There's a bit of a stretch between here and here. And the same thing, same kind of thing. And the rest of it is stuff we've already had before. So I would practice this Really Look for that stress between the G in the sea. That's going to be hard if you're kind of new to piano really feeling that stretch. But again, like with all the other left hand videos, there's a simplified version. Check this out instead of doing this. Just do what you did before Aled this down than in the measures with F A's and C's Away this down. That's all you got to do. All right, this one's fairly easy. I'll see you in the next video for left hand for this is going to be the final video for the left hand. After that, we start looking at right hand and together issues. 6. Maple leaf rag left hand 4 1272x720: Okay. Here. We're looking at Maple Leaf Rag. Its left hand for Play it all the way through. Okay, so we're starting where we left off before we are in measure 26th. And look, we've had this before. Have this part before way. Get to something new. We've got single notes in the left hand repeating and going down. So we've got f E. Now. I would definitely recommend starting on two on F thing going down to three oniy for Ani flatten the next pattern. 51 D on going to f sharp and a three and one way Go up to here five on G with the flat dean . And then we move over to hear G and B one and three Jing and be back to the C B flat one in five, one and two on f A a to a c ending on that f. Okay, if you have trouble with this doing all this and you might If you're new to piano again, you can block the first few measures. Just do this. Just do that thing. This measure you can't really block the next when you can. One big unit, Same thing for this one. Block this block this on block that last more or actually do that literally. I think it's a lot more effective. Okay, So if I'm going too fast, anything slow this video down, go back and look at it. I'm not really sure what level of piano you're on. This could be really hard. This could be really easy. I'm not certain. Okay, so I'll see you in the next video when we start tackling the right hand. 7. Maple leaf rag right hand 1 1272x720: Okay, here we are on Maple Leaf rag. Were on the right hand part one. Hopefully, this point, you've learned a lot of left hand and hopefully you have your sheet music out in front. I'm going to go just a section I'll play the whole section that go into some details. Okay, that's all there is to it. So getting back to the very first part notice I'm in this standard F position. If you had some my courses before you probably familiar with. I've got my one on f and my five appear on the sea. Okay, lets you could look at just these 1st 2 measures. Notice what ideo to see that I go down a little bit further for this e. But I keep my Tuan Jie and my five on seats. So what I do is I just expand the hand slightly to play both measures. So I start in this position f c f c have see stress to the into the G and then to the sea. And I do the same thing for the next two measures. Now, this next part a little bit more tricking you could do it two ways F A flat two d flat. Now the next notice. See, I could play the two seas with this with the forefinger. I or I could do this. I personally prefer you do this on then to four on C rather than this. But I can see that either way, I could see a injury level pianist doing either one. Okay, so that's basically covers the notes and the technique. Hopefully you've printed of the sheet music. You see that? A lot of the notes are written in. You hopefully played pieces with these notes before. Now, what about the rhythm? There's a few little Syncopations cause it's jazz. So think about this first measure I'm gonna count. And two and three and no. So I did. And two and three. And this See right here is a little bit longer. And and two and three and I would play that along with me a few times. The temptation is gonna be to do this. You're not gonna hold that. See long. Remember that C is 1/4 note. It is one count now. The next measure you've got one and free four. This see right here is help for two counts. Plus, as you can see, there is a tie to that C eight note. You do the same thing and two and three and one end free four. Hold it down this measure and to end and thats probably one most rhythmically complicated measures of the piece. This is measure for and to and and And so knows his first see notice on your music That c is 1/4 note followed by that so and to end and okay on that last see is a dotted quarter. This will be a little bit clear when we start seeing our videos of how to put their hands together. Because, really, if you don't play with good rhythm, it's just not going to sound good if you're playing it with hands together. OK, so for now, practice this right hand this first port. Continue practicing this until you got a basic knowledge of the right hand for this first part. And I'll see you in the video when we start looking at the right hand to on a measure night 8. Maple leaf rag transition 1272x720: Okay, here we are on Maple Leaf rag and we're looking at the transition section. Why don't we call it the transition section? Basically, this goes from one theme and transitions to another theme, and this sections kind of unique because it's really left hand over right hand. And that's why we got this wider shot. We've got the camera higher up. So this starts in measure seven. I'm gonna play it real slow. And then the right hand stays right here for the next section Would do that one more time, OK? Notice something. I'm playing in a group of four note patterns. So f a flat C, then right hand a flat C left hand F a flat C Yeah, right hand F a flat C And, uh so I would memorize those four notes that really will help you play this effectively. It's that same four notes over and over and over and over again. Also notice some of the technique I start off in this position. The five here, the four here to here on the one here in the right hand. 123 and four. You could do three here. I think four works better, but it's up to you. Okay, so also notice this right now. Notice what happens. The left comes over and does what? This hand What the right hand just did. And then the right hand one more f a flat c And so again I would memorize this. The advantage of this is you don't have to do hands together is just hand over hand. One note at a time. Alright. Keep working on this and I'll see you in the next video. 9. Maple leaf rag right hand 2 1272x720: Okay. Here. We're looking at the next part of the right hand on Maple Leaf Rag. We've just done the transition. We're up here now. Why are we playing this F so high? The reason is, as you can see on your sheet music is you have this eight V a simple this line that says eight V A. That means you go one octave up and written. It's written here. So therefore, you play here, I'm gonna play this part that goes down for about 12345678 measures. It's basically the same thing twice. Here it is. Okay, we're back to here. Will make over fingering first and then talk about the rhythm. Stay on the five finger for the F, then A to free 123 Now, this is the hardest stretch. I've gotto angle my thumb down to f that angle the other fingers over G a flat bath G and then a natural. Remember, that symbol is a natural symbol. So it's flat. First a flat, a natural, and then f back Teoh f Here. You stay in this little position, then noticed the next part doesn't have a Navy. A simple So what's that mean? It's no longer appear. It's here, and all of this is the same. Okay, that's all exactly the same is the same. Notes is just down. Adoptive is not here. It's here in terms, rhythm. Remember, you've got three coordinates. One, 234 and on to on free land one and two and three. Now, this measure here one and two and that a is held for quarter. It's a little bit longer there than in a note. 28 and then 1/4 quarter, the same exact with them here one and two and three and longer. One and two. Okay, so get used to that in the right hand, and I'll see you next video for our third video on just the right hand. 10. Maple leaf rag right hand 3 1272x720: Okay, here we are. Right hand part three. I'm going to start, and I've got my hand up in this vision. Let me play the whole section. I'm going to go over it. Okay? Notice where I'm at first. I've got my one upon this scene. Now, where is this scene? I remember This is middle C Here. Hi. See this E here. Five up on this high C. So almost as high as part to not quite part two started up here. Okay, so on my e two c t e to four on G. I mean, sorry to Angie 24 on B. And remember, this is be natural for that. Because of that simple No one here. I'm going to swivel. The four over went upon three on a then I Look at this one free. That's your hardest maneuver. Move over. Are there other ways of doing it? Feel free to experiment one. I'm sorry. 41 for five would work. That certainly conceivable. I find this one to be the easiest. But if you like this or this, that might work too. Hey, it's a variation. Go for it, then. We're gonna have to jump down to here. I'm gonna put my one on a my five f to hear on the sea for three here. And the two stay in this position for next measure F k C d E a d. Then move over to three on C. Now, this and I really don't see too many other options. Keep your three here on the sea. The five here on this, even the one here on the two on the B flat and then the next part next to measures. Listen to this. I think you've heard that before. That was the two measures you had just a few seconds ago. Okay, So experiment with some different fingering in this part Here, The first part, I could see a lot of different possibilities. You do whatever you think is really works well for you, depending on your technique and your hand size in terms of rhythm. Typical jobs in rhythm and two and three. And this is 1/4 hold longer and one and and live it longer because the time and four same kind of rhythm here and two and three and one and the same cattle rhythm and to and and and four and two and three and one and two. And okay, typical Joplin. Read them very similar to your first main theme. Just a little bit different. Okay, so let's get this down. Try to get this down is a little bit higher if you're new to piano. Some of these high C's and B's air not so familiar to you. Go ahead and write it in right in every note if you'd like to, and I'll see you in next video when we finally finish up the right hand. 11. Maple leaf rag right hand 4 1272x720: here. We're looking at Maple Leaf Rag and we're in the final video for just the right hand alone . See, if you remember this part. That's just from before. We've already done that. No reason to go over that next couple of measures. Almost like what we had before. But we go to this a and then look at this measure. All quarter notes way go to here. Next part. Okay, let's discuss some fingering the first part of this. You've already done no reason. Talk about it. The next part one on a five on F here is totally new five. I do 15 on A and F I do a 15 on G sharpening. I do 15 on Jan. E flat so we could do it this way. I personally find the easiest way you could do this. None for 14 I could see that angle. You could do this. 15 then toe 14 I could see that again. Experiment with this on your own. Find what works for you the best when it comes to fingering, There's not always a right answer for this next part. I don't see too much difference. I would put a one here on D A to an f sharp. A three and a five on the Heidi. I don't see any other type of fingering that would really work. Getting a three here is very uncomfortable. So for the next measure, you've got a one on D. Keep it on D. I keep one D two on G and a three on the B flat. So I go from this position to this before next Measure a then another a g where you could do three free to. I could see that either way. Final measure. Get your one on F two on a three l C. Five on the high. Okay, let's talk about some rhythm. The rhythm here. Same as before. The same thing here. Now this is just all court notes. One, 23 This'll next measure all maintenance and two and three and four and two and 341 And and this is the hardest measure in terms of rhythm. The next. The last measure This is own count one. Then the next minute outcomes on the end of two. So one and put it, I didn't go 12 I went one and and then the next note is a dotted quarter, and it's on the and of three. So it's 12 and three and and that's held through count for so one and three and last measure and two and free. And you could slow that down. Instead of this, you could slow down because it's the end of the beast. Okay, so this point, hopefully you've learned your left hand. You've got the transition down. Hopefully you've got your right hand down. Um, part by part. They have not continue work on right hand. Next set of videos, we're gonna start putting the hands together. We're gonna look at how to put together with simplified version of the left hand or the rial version. 12. Maple leaf rag together 1 1272x720: Okay, here we are, looking at Maple Leaf Rag. We're gonna start putting our hands together. I'm gonna show you how to put together with simplified version of left hand and then the actual written sheet music. So hopefully at this point, you've got your music out. You've got your left hand down. You got your right hand down times start putting hands together. Here we are in first position. I'm gonna play it the simplified way. Both hands. Fairly easy to put together the first measure. When you do this pick up note in the first measure, hold the left hand down, right hand plays. And now they come together right here. Same. His first measure. Hold down. Now this there isn't a simplified version. We get the D flat left, right, left, right. Uh, okay. And then you do the transition part. Now, that's not gonna be too hard. I recommend you do that first. Then after that, this is what's gonna happen. I'm gonna do really slow hands together. The real music We start with our C in the left hand, left right, together, together, left, right, together, together, left, left, left, right, together, together. Left, right, together, together, left, left on. And then the next two measures are exactly identical. So here's the plan. First do it this way. Getting the hands together. Don't forget to hold the left hand. Don't do this. No. Hold that left hand out. Then gradually start doing all the other notes real slow. Try to work up your speed. I would just do Onley this section Hands together. Okay, I'll see in the next video. Remember, after this comes a transition, we've already shown you that and then you get up in your high position. The right hand is really, really high up there. I'm gonna show you both hands together in this next part. 13. Maple leaf rag together 2 1272x720: Okay, guys, here we're looking at right hand, left hand together. This is the part. After the transition, left hands down here on this right hands. Not here. But we have to remember, this is middle C. So way far away. Hopefully you can see this. Okay, If not, maybe put the full screen on your video of your just gonna do the easy work for way first and then show you how to get it with the actual left hand. Quarter notes. Here we go. Right hand moves down. Does the same thing. Okay, Now, let's just go over this. We've got the right hand up here. It's together. Right? Right, right. Right. Then left then. Right. Be careful about that. Don't do this. That sounds OK, but that's not what the guy really wants. So right, Right. Left then right together. Here, together, together, together, together. Moves over here. Together. Right, right, right. Right then left together together. So remember, do this version first. Just holding down the left hand for four counts each measure. Now let's do it The rial way. Real slow. So together, together, together, together then right. Left, right, together, together, left hand. No, moves to here together together together, Right, Left right together together the same thing Just down Occupy If you can do what I just did You just do the same thing down an octave. I'll go ahead. Do it anyway. Together together, together, together, Right, Left right together. Same thing together together together, Right. Left right together on together. Okay, so this is too complicated at first, remember? Hold that left hand down. Don't do the actual version. Do the easy version first and then do the hard version. I'll see you in the next video when we're going to go into the third section. 14. Maple leaf rag together 3 1272x720: you were looking at the right hand and left in together on the third part. I'm going to start with this second, ending this f sharp and then go right into Measure 18. Let's do it the simple way, way. - Apparently easy. Kind of like the first part. You hit the left then the left right goes been together, left and immediately right, left and right together. And then just like before. Okay. Has usual get this down First, get the right hand and left hand doing the simplified left hand version. Then if you get that, let's do the real version. I'll play it all the way through. - Let's go over a few hard parts. We started the extra booth G right thing together together, and you got to stretch down to that left hand there together, right together, right together, left together, together, together, here, together, left right together, kind of same kind of four left, then right together, together, left right together. And just like for left, right together, right together, right together, together, left right to together. Okay, so this has a lot of the same principles of the past two sections. Hat is just a bit longer and you kind of got a stretch from here. Then move on down to here, then move on down to this area. But the good news is you've only got about two patterns and left hand, and then you have this pattern so has before work this up from slow to fast, and I'll see you in the final section of both hands. 15. Maple leaf rag together 4 1272x720: I believe Ragged. The final section, both hands. This is just like before. I'm going to do it the easy way and then the hard way. So this starts off just like what we had before. You probably remember this from the last section. Then here, just like before. And then listen to this. No simplified version. This is the easy way in the hard way. Both hands go down and then Okay, so this first part, we've already done that. And, you know, you can do the hard way. If if you're good at that by now. Same thing for this part here. You already know that. I'm not gonna go over that again. I'm gonna go over this measure, both hands together. It goes lower. Let's look at the real way. Left, right, together, together, together, left, right, together, together, together, together. Left, right, left, right, Left. That next. The last measure. Like I've said before, it's the hardest one. So in slow motion together. Left then right. Left, right, left. Let's write together together this concludes piece. So at this point tried to get this section even better. And I would say once you get the whole piece down and you're doing the rial way. You're doing it the hard way. Try men, Rice, parts of it. I hope you've enjoyed this.