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does anyone know please what grade maple leaf rag by scott joplin is please. i want to play it for my A-level piano recital and im not sure what standard it is? it needs to be at least grade 6 or i cant play it. I also heard it was on the trinity exams at grade 8 but someone else said it had also been on ABRSM. does anybody know please? thanks for your help .

I think the Maple Leaf Rag is a grade four piece in the Jazz series. I don't know if the jazz series differs from the regular ABRSM levels.

I believe it is different - though im not sure.
I would rate this a grade 6/7 (ABRSM)

surely it cant be grade 4 at abrsm? the jazz series must be a lot different because it is definately a lot trickier than any of my grade 6 pieces i have played never mind grade 4. just lookin at it tells me that its a higher standard than that. Maybe it was simplified for the jazz series though?

and i just found a website saying Maple Leaf Rag
RCM Grade 9. WHATTTTTTTTTT?! im confuzzled

Hello,

Rockschool (www.rockschool.co.uk) have it in their Grade 5 syllabus.

EDIT: In response the following post, you're right. The Rockschool version is in Bb, not Ab, and it skips the C section (section??!). Not sure why because the C section is no harder than the A, B and D. Thanks for pointing out that there are different versions of this tune floating around.

Rob.

Sorry if this sounds ignorant, but there are a few versions of Maple Leaf Rag and I would expect the grade to be different depending on which version you are playing.

Here's a website that gives information about FIVE grade levels for abrsm jazz.

abrsm jazz grades

The joplin rags are in grade four. I have seen other sites that specifically put the Maple Leaf in grade four as well.

I don NOT know how jazz grades line up against classical levels.

hmm well the version i have is definitaly above a grade 4 because iv just looked at a grade 4 piece and then maple n its so much more advanced. i appreciate its different for different version. I have the version for 'joy of ragtime' book if any1 has that?

The Jazz grades ABRSM do are comparatively of a much higher standard than the classical grades as they advise you are at least grade 2 classical or equivalent before starting grade 1 Jazz, and Jazz grades only go up to grade 5 at the moment, if I remember correctly. So if it's grade 4 Jazz, than it's probably a similar level to grade 7 or 8.
Ask your A level tutor as he/she'll be able to help no doubt.

My teacher told me it was about grade 7 (ABRSM classical) and I seem to remember seeing it was a trinity grade 7 piece (check their web site), I'm referring to the original one written in Ab

chrisg.

You are thinking the same as me. I do not know about 'piano grades' but I only just saw this topic and thought about the differing arrangements there are. Probably they, the Exam Board, if I have that correct, would take it on merit of the interpretation at the time. Unless they played from a score.

Certainly there are many variations of M. L.Rag.

Alan.

my pal john sat his grade 7 exam recently and played this.

Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin is Grade 9. Sheet Music: Alfred Publishing Co. Inc.
038081137407

It seems to me next to pointless to assign a grade to ragtime. The genre, while relatively undemanding physically, (some of James Scott's are harder)requires an extremely developed sense of rhythm of a very particular type. Many classically trained players cannot play it at all, or to be precise, they can play all the notes but just do not understand the rhythm.

This special property of the music makes "grading" it, in any real musical sense, all but impossible.

Is that so, really? I have found that composers like Debussy, The Gollywogs Cakewalk for instance, and Gershwin often syncopate. (Even Beethoven was on to it). The syncopation was supposedly invented by Joplin and his contemporaries.

But I'm sure a classical pianist who reads the score straight through would be able to learn it. Joplin was a classical pianist not a jazz pianist. The term Rag Time was deplorable to him. It's American Classical Music.

The grade of this music is equivalent to the grade of Gollywog's Cakewalk. What's that? About
6 I think.