This ragtime-influenced contemporary piece incorporates traditional syncopation with a modern harmonic palette. It is distinctive for blending the structure of American ragtime with present-day compositional techniques.
Focus on the precision of the syncopated rhythms while keeping the left-hand stride pattern steady.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Big City Rag is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 4.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 3 — meaning you can already play level 2–3 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of Big City Rag lasts about 3 minutes.
Big City Rag is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.
Pieces at a comparable difficulty and character include Alexander's Ragtime Band by Irving Berlin, Waltz in D-flat major, No. 1 by Frédéric Chopin, 12 Variations on 'Ah vous dirai-je, Maman' by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.