Black Feather is an obscure ragtime piece composed by Irene M. Giblin, a prominent female composer in the genre. It captures the percussive and syncopated charm characteristic of the early ragtime style.
Ensure crisp, detached articulation to highlight the syncopated rhythms throughout the piece.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Black Feather 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 Black Feather lasts about 3 minutes.
Black Feather 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.