Best of Week: Vertical Listening

For me, the best activity in class throughout the week was listening to Maple Leaf Rag. By listening to the song vertically, I believe I enjoyed the song to its full affect. It was hard at first to filter out just the bass from the song, but eventually I was able to hear the song in layers. I play piano so I have always enjoyed listening to good piano pieces, but it has been a while since I heard a song that I enjoyed this much. It was hard to just listen to the bass line or the melody, because I wanted to hear the two parts together. While listening to Maple Leaf Rag, I noticed how different the base line was than most piano pieces. It never stopped entertaining and kept them tempo really upbeat. I am used to playing and hearing piano pieces with slow and long base lines that are boring. But I felt that in Maple Leaf Rag, the base line could hold on its own. To me, it seemed like the song had two medolys playing along together. I enjoyed last week immensely because I was able to listen to such a great song.