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. 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.

Black and white rag player piano roll