Portland Ragtime Society new monthly meeting place

From the Elevated Coffee website, please note the new change of venue for the monthly meeting of the Portland Ragtime Society:

The Portland Ragtime Society conducts their monthly meetings at Elevated Coffee every first Sunday of the month

Everyone is welcome to participate.

DATE: Every first Sunday of the month

TIME: 3:00-6:00

LOCATION: Elevated Coffee, 5261 NE M. L. King Jr. Blvd, Portland, OR 97211 (see map)

Elevated Coffee is located in the Vanport Square, one block south of Killingsworth, and across the street from the Blazers Boys & Girls Club.

Map of location.

Come one, come all. I'll be there once again for sure and have fun with their new, white baby grand piano at Elevated Coffee.

Raggin' my way to the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Missouri (June 2 - 6)

Greetings all. I have great news. I'll be attending the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival which takes place in the historic town of Sedalia, Missouri (see map). This year's festival starts on June 2 and ends on June 6, 2010. A highly popular musical and celebratory event where people from all over the world descend on the quiet town of 25,000. This trip is being sponsored by a communication company, sComm, Inc, based in Missouri, a few hours away from Sedalia, Missouri. I've known the CEO and founder of that company for several years. A great friend of mine. So, be sure to check out their website for their products and services.

I plan to blog about my trip and this ragtime festival with pictures and videos. I'm sure I'll meet many well known (and unknown) skillful ragtime pianists there. Many of them I am envy of their superb skills. Be sure to keep an eye on this blog for more updates and news.

Weeping Willow

Here's my piano ragtime piece called "Weeping Willow," a Scott Joplin piece. Excuse the "clacking" sound you may hear. The piano also sounded a bit odd in a several pieces of this music because of the laptop camera microphone being too close to the wall that unnaturally amplied certain notes whic made the "clacking" noise. Next time I'll move it away from the wall for a more fuller sound, hopefully so. In this video, I was just basically messing around and I'll need to play a bit more smoother in some spots the next time since I was getting a feel of my new laptop and camera. But for now, just enjoy my piece.

An update

Hello all. I got a new lap with a better video cam and I'm currently playing around with it and soon to have a few videos up on me playing some ragtime pieces. Just be patient and things will come around soon enough. My other laptop's video cam didn't do justice when it came to video-taping my playing. It just came out not as clear and motions were blurry such as my recent Black and White rag video. So, sit tight as I get around to a good time to capture my video when everything is quiet in my house. I plan to play Blarney Kisses and Weeping Willow.

Another hard of hearing pianist playing ragtime

Here's an "hearing impaired" pianist playing Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. Don't know who this guy is but he is playing a ragtime piano piece, though.

Deaf, blind and cerebral palsy young man plays Jazz Piano

Here's something you don't see everyday. A blind, deaf man with cerebral palsy who started playing the piano last year on a new piano given to him for Christmas. He taught himself to play the piano by ear! The power of hearing your own music!

Welcome another HOH Pianist

Don't know his name yet but here's a piano playing video of this gentleman who is 21 years old and is currently attending a university in southern California. He plays a classical concert repetroire piece Chopin's Octave Etude and does it very well. He began playing the piano at the age of 3 and it was until age 5 did his parents found out he has profound hearing loss.