Ragtime Era Clothes

One good way to research ragtime era clothing (between 1890 and 1929) is to examine the cover sheets of old ragtime scores. This can be done by browsing at digital libraries such as the University of Colorado Digital Sheet Music Collection or any number of sources seen in the link on the right side column of my blog (scroll down some) under "Free Ragtime Sheets." In there you will find cover sheets that depict people or couples wearing clothes at the time of publication. A fairly accurate way to ensure that the clothes you see is indeed ragtime era clothing between 1890 and 1929 (which is the end period prior to the terrible stock market crash in 1929). Good times before everything went south. This will help gain a better understanding on the types of clothing to wear if you decide to dress correctly for that era such wearing costumes for ragtime festivals, ragtime society groups, or compete in World Championship Old Time Piano Playing contests when the rules call for clothes as an authentic period dress, preferably so between 1890 and 1929.

Enjoy!

A deaf pianist?

A  deaf pianist??  Is there such a thing? Certainly. I am one of them. Specifically, a deaf ragtime pianist. I am also hard of hearing if that helps since I do have useable hearing in my right ear I take advantage of with my hearing aid. My left ear is no good.

Playing the piano is something I love to do and it is no mystery to me that deaf people can be pianists, enjoy playing it and be good at it. When I get the chance to sit down at the piano it becomes a relaxing affair even when I'm practicing a new ragtime piece. I'm no beginner here. I began playing the piano since I was 7 years old. That was over 40 years ago. Discovered ragtime in my early teens.   I continue to play and practice new ragtime songs on my 1920 Thompson player piano as well as my Kohler & Campbell piano. I play pieces like Kitten on the Keys by Zez Confrey, Black and White by George Botsford, Bag of Rags by WR McKanlass, Scott Joplin pieces, K.K. Ragtime by Kazumi Totaka, Apple Sass by Harry Belding, American Beauty by Joseph Lamb and many, many more.  The links are pages to free music sheets download.

Not all pianists born with a hearing loss have the same amount or type of frequency hearing loss. Some are born with mild hearing loss others have severe to profound hearing loss. I wear a hearing aid in my right ear while my left is no good. I can hear all of the 88-key notes. Some deaf pianists are unable to hear the higher notes or the lower notes even with the help of a  hearing aid. Some pianists wear cochlear implants.  Each of us has a preference to a particular type of piano pieces we like to play whether it'd be classical, country, jazz, ragtime, rock, or boogie woogie. For me, I am simply fascinated with the ragtime and novelty pieces. So I prefer to spend my time playing those pieces than classical scores.

What do you prefer to play?

Deaf Pianist Donates $2 Million Dollars

A deaf person who also plays the piano donates $2 milllion dollars to California State University, Fresno.

Retired architect, vineyard owner and piano player Robert Duncan Nicol, who has been deaf since birth, says he is living proof "that deaf people, indeed, can do many things." That includes being a generous benefactor. Nicol on Friday gave $2 million for The Silent Garden program in the Communicative Disorders and Deaf Studies department at California State University, Fresno. The donation will help deaf and hearing-impaired children, their parents and teachers, as well as adults with hearing loss.

Making Music with a Hearing Loss: Strategies and Stories

That book is now available in Amazon. I'll be getting a free copy of it since I'm one of the several deaf/hh musicians who were interviewed for that book. My narrative can be found in the final chapter of that book.

There are many texts on music and hearing loss, but what makes this volume unique is that it does not require the reader to have any previous background in hearing science. It is written in non-technical language for the layman, and begins by explaining how the human ear hears sound. It covers the interplay between music, speech and hearing devices and discusses hearing conservation for musicians. The final chapter contains inspiring narratives from eleven deaf or hard of hearing musicians belonging to the Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss. These eleven stories describe using a variety of strategies to integrate hearing loss and music making. Musicians new to hearing loss, hearing-impaired adults wanting to learn a musical instrument, audiologists, music educators, and music researchers will also find this book a valuable addition to their library collection.

I'll be waiting with great anticipation for my free copy. If you are deaf or hard of hearing and enjoy music, this will be a great book to have. If you have a hearing loss and is considering on wanting to play a musical instrument, don't let your hearing loss stop you. And if you do play a musical instrument....don't stop! Keep practicing and find other like minded people who enjoy playing music with their musical instruments.

Possum and Taters

Here's something I just picked up quite recently and tried my hands on it for a few days. Some brushing up here and there are needed. I'm sure you'll enjoy this one called "Possum and Taters - a Ragtime Feast" published in 1900. But, dang, my piano sure needs some serious tuning up!

A Purveyor of Pleasingly Pianistic Pyrotechnics of Ragtime Music

My music began at the age of 7 when my fingers first touched the black and white keys on our first piano in my parents’ house. I begged my Mom and Dad to get a piano because I wanted to learn how to play the piano thinking it was cool to have a piano. Of the three of us siblings, my younger sister and older brother, I was the only one who continued to practice on our piano. Over the years I had fun performing at piano recitals though many did not realize that I was deaf/hh. In my early teens I discovered ragtime though when younger my first piece was a simplified version of “The Entertainer” - a widely popular and recognizable Scott Joplin ragtime piece. My love for ragtime stayed with me even while as I was absent from ever touching a piano during my college days and while raising a family that took away much of my time the opportunity to even play on piano on a regular basis. But that didn’t stop me from reading books on ragtime and the people while collecting ragtime piano sheet music whenever I could. The internet over the last several years has made it easier to learn about ragtime, the people (new and old), the history, the music and lots of free ragtime music sheets I can print out. My time finally came in December 2008 when I bought myself a piano. I decided upon a goal to get back into ragtime with fervor and become the first known deaf/hh ragtime pianist. It will take some time, gradually and slowly for sure. I sure hope I have some fun getting there.

It won’t be easy to be an accomplished ragtime pianist. The question I am facing is how accomplish can I become? This goal of mine will certainly take some time since I started my long hours of practicing last year starting January 2009. I’ve been absent from my piano much too long. My fingers and hands would require getting used to playing the piano on a constant basis. Just like when it comes to sports or exercising, one has to build up to it until so you can practice for hours and not have your fingers get tired. At first I was sore and felt clumsy playing it, my coordination was a bit off but with gradual practicing and finger exercises I was finally able to get to the point of practicing 4 or 5 hours a day if I wanted to. Though my normal, ideal, amount of time is about 2 to 3 hours a day. It takes time to get the proper hand/eye coordination in place, have your brain adapt more fluidly to reading piano music sheets, getting the dynamics down correctly, knowing where to place your fingers and hands without looking, learning to listen to the notes and make sure they sound right, get the timing down, using the right amount of application, getting the right melody, and so on…..done automatically. For me, it takes even more practice to get it down right while others are a pure natural at playing the piano. I may be a “natural” in some sense but it sure doesn’t feel like it...yet. There is a 25 year gap I’ve got to catch up on. Though my sight reading on new music sheet pieces are becoming easier nowadays though by no means I can whiz right though them. There are thousands of ragtime songs out there, many of them available over the internet. I collect them for my growing ragtime portfolio. My goal is to play as many of these ragtime pieces and memorize some of them when I can. Someday I'll eventually move into more early Jazz pieces (e.g. Jelly Roll Morton) and stride piano (e.g. Fats Waller) but for now it’s all ragtime and lot of catching up to do.

How to describe ragtime piano to deaf people?

There are certain music I believe that most deaf people, especially those born with a hearing loss or lose it early in life, do not even know it exist or even care for it. One of that music is ragtime. I genre of music that I've come to know and enjoy immensely.

What is ragtime anyway? According to Scott Joplin, the "King of Ragtime," he aptly described ragtime music as "weird and intoxicating" when played right. Yeah, but that doesn't describe it does it? In ragtime on a piano it is the (melodic) syncopation of the right hand with the accented bass movement of the left hand. Chords do not define ragtime but the syncopated style that makes ragtime music recognizable. Which is why it's called "ragged time." Confused? Ok. The bare bones description. On the piano it combines the left hand bass movements (the "oom-pah oom-pah" feel to it) with the deep bass notes that you can actually feel the vibration. The right hand movements play the syncopated movements that produces the melody with an off-beat sound to it. This is mostly the higher notes which is harder to feel and detect its vibrations. With that combination of sound it gives that particular "weird and intoxicating" flavor of music to it.

It's hard to describe to a deaf person on why ragtime is so enjoyable and pleasing to listen to just as it's hard to describe to a blind person why a particular painting is so wonderful and pleasing to look at. Descriptions can only go so far. Other senses must be used help fill in this gap.

First, if you have a good set of speakers for your computer (or to an even larger, stronger external set of speakers) let's go to John Roache's website where he describes what ragtime is all about and a chance for you to feel (and perhaps hear) what it "sounds" like. John Roache is able to break it down into separate, identifiable music and when combined makes it into a ragtime music. In this case, he uses the familiar tune of "Mary had a little lamb" and turns that into a ragtime example.

All I can say is that as with jazz, stride piano, novelty piano, or even ragtime piano, one has to appreciate the musical qualities behind them in order to truly enjoy these genre periods. I don't expect Deaf people to understand why I enjoy and play ragtime piano except that I find it "weird and intoxicating" whenever I play it. It's a musical art that keeps on giving.

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.

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.

My new Kohler & Campbell KC118 Piano

Ok. Here are my pictures taken from my laptop webcam. Not very good. The morning sun was a bit bright, washing out the colors but it'll do for now. Enjoy.

A Deaf Ragtime Pianist

Often I wonder how many deaf or hard of hearing pianists in the United States who enjoy playing the piano, especially in the arena of Ragtime. I simply refuse to believe that I am the only deaf/hh pianist who play Ragtime actively. There has to be a few people out there who enjoy playing the piano who happens to be deaf or hard of hearing and like playing Ragtime. Although if you go to Google and type in "deaf," "ragtime" and "piano" you'll see that my blogsite is mentioned first in a Google's search result. Not much help there but I'm sure someday something will pop up.

Meanwhile, I am currently looking for a better piano to replace my clunky spinet piano which currently does not have any really good sound to begin with along with the odd key and hammer movements where a key or two will get stuck from time to time. Very aggravating at that! Even though with the right Ragtime music piece my washed out white piano would exhibit that bit of clinky (or clacky in this case), out of tune sound noise that'd make Ragtime playing sound a bit more, well, "authentic." But that's pushing it if you listen to my Maple Leaf Rag rendition on YouTube. So far, Craigslist.com is the best bet and I have seen pianos for sale that looked good but the price is bit out of my range. At least I can scan the music instrument section for the El Paso, Texas area, and the Las Cruces to Roswell area in New Mexico as well.

The choices I'm looking for are studio and upright pianos. The differences?

Studio - This is the kind of piano you see in music schools and music studios. It is 45 to 48 inches in height and has a width of approxmately 58 inches. Because of its larger soundboard and longer strings, it produces good tone quality and is very durable.

Upright - This is the tallest among the vertical pianos, with a height ranging from 50 to 60 inches and an approximate width of 58 inches. This is the type of piano your great grandparents or grandparents used to play. When cared for properly, it stands the test of time and maintains its rich tone.

If the price is right and the condition of the piano is right (i.e. no missing strings, stuck keys or parts that need replacing) then I will surely get it. It's better to get the right one than not at all. Meanwhile, be sure to watch out for my upcoming videos of me playing a few pieces of Scott Joplin's. I just need to get around to video taping my pieces soon.