Hi.
I'm trying to play Maple Leaf Rag, and i cant play the 5th and 6th (round abouts) bars. It says to play (in right hand):-

Eb Ab Cb Fb Eb Eb.

I can't see how u can play a Cb or Fb, unless u just go one semitone done from C or F.
Please help.

Cb is B & Fb is E on a piano. Is that what you mean?

sorry

How come you're playing a fairly difficult piece like Mapple Leaf Rag and don't know Fb and Cb? That's grade 1 theory - I was doing it with students this morning - and they only started in September.

Don't be TOO hard on them

I gave some students a jazz number a few weeks ago - melody line and chord symbols and asked them to make of it what they could...........except that I hadn't told them it was a German edition and contained the chord H7 (aka B7 )

Only one of them had the "nouse" to investigate

why doesnt the composer (or whoever's writing the peice) just write the note as B, not Cb, because u could do that for every note. whats the point?

My hubby, who doesn't play the piano, thinks that sharps and flats are "the black notes" (he can only really read guitar tabs). So I wonder if Reignmurda has got the same misunderstanding?

Reignmurda, When two notes have the same sound but different names, they are called enharmonics. Cb is the enharmonic of B natural, and so you play the note that you know as "B". (Likewise, in reverse, B# is the same note on the piano as C natural.) So you were right to assume that, in bars 5 & 6, you just go down one semitone for those two notes.

Good luck with playing the Maple Leaf Rag - it's great isn't it!

Hope this helps.



Amber
x

The point is that it makes sense in terms of the scale the piece is written in.

Without going into the physics of it...some might argue that Cb is NOT a B natrual, however, on an equal tempered instrument like the piano, it doesn't matter, but like Amber said, it fits in the scale

thanks so much all of u. and thanks Amber for wishing me luck. Cheers!

I would *strongly* suggest that you find yourself a basic theory book so that things like this don't cause confusion in the future.

It's an Fb chord....flatted supertonic of the Dominant Eb, known as the Phrygian II ....bII to V.

You can read more about it Here

Gae