Wall Street Rag
Romantic Piano solo 5 min
In brief

The "Wall Street Rag" has a bright, driving character with punchy runs and occasional wistful turns that require asserting the pulse while shaping expressive accents. For technical challenges, you will need to focus on the Syncopes (2.5/5), which demand precise rhythmic control in the right hand to keep the momentum without blurring accented off-beats, and the Pédale de sustain (3.1/5), which here requires short, articulated pedaling to connect certain voices without smearing the syncopations. This piece belongs to Scott Joplin’s piano solo repertoire and exemplifies the ragtime style that is central to his catalogue. I’m not confident enough to cite a specific definitive recording for this exact work, so you and your teacher can choose reference performances as you prepare.

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Sheet music

Public-domain sheet music on IMSLP ↗

Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
43/100
Elementary
Likely range : 31–55/100
Confidence : 30% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 4 to 5

Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

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Relative difficulty
64%
Among Scott Joplin
22%
Era Romantic
Genre
Estimated skills
Pedaling
Sustain pedal
1
Style
Romantic style
1
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
1
Technique
Hand independence
1
Rhythm
Dotted rhythms
1
Rhythm
Syncopation
1
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

See the whole progression