Critical Listening 6

Maple Leaf Rag - Scott Joplin

This piece is an older Rag Time tune from the late 1800's. The song is in ABACD format. I would place the BPM of this song around 98-100. This is almost a type of showman ship to prove how good he was at his profession. I'm sure Jelly Roll Morton and other famous Pianist used songs and structures like this one to reach new levels of playing. Tweaking and reconstructing ragtime into the solos certain pianist played in later jazz music is obvious to me now. It's cool to see how ragtime evolved into improvisational jazz yet still kept many of its roots.