Piano Man Steve's Blog

Root Beer Rag (Billy Joel)

Feb 18, 2025

The "Root Beer Rag"! What can I say about this piece? First of all, it's an instrumental, which is unusual for a guy famous for writing songs with lyrics. But in 1974, Billy Joel released an album called "Streetlife Serenade" that featured two instrumentals, "Root Beer Rag" being one of them. This one is fast and impressive....moves like greased lightning. It naturally became a cult favorite among his "true believer fans" and a showstopper for newcomers. It also became the theme music for the first incarnation of a movie review television series by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. Because of the popularity it gained among his live concert following, he made it the B-side to a handful of single records released from the "52nd Street" album in 1978 and 1979.

I'm going to admit something right now...some of you might have noticed it already on your own, and some might not.....but the fact is, I make a bunch of mistakes in the performance cover below, and have sloppy execution at best. For me to really clean this piece up would require weeks, perhaps even months of focused repetition, and maybe even a commitment to some Hannon-style finger exercises. I could do it, but it would be a chore, and I don't know if I value the outcome enough to pay the price.

I'm sharing all of that with you because you'll notice that I didn't let the fact that I couldn't play it perfectly stop me from playing it at all. I've been working with piano players all over the world now for 15 years, and I can say without hesitation that the biggest impediment most of them have to making the progress they really want and having the joy filled satisfying experience with it that they've always dreamed of is the need to be "perfect", and the feeling that anything less is unworthy. And I always tell them....gently, but bluntly....you're not going to reach perfection, period....end of story. There is no such thing. Even if you manage to play a song without hitting any wrong keys, you'll still feel like something could have been better....the tempo was uneven or too slow, the clarity of the articulation of the notes wasn't what you wanted it to be, etc. You will NEVER get it perfect, and the sooner you stop making that a requirement, the sooner you'll start making improvements and enjoying yourself along the way.

It's important to note that I didn't say it's wrong to want to get better....that's the joy in the whole experiment. Mastering a new technique, or leveling up how you play a song, or any of a hundred other things are what makes it worth it to keep at it....but the pursuit of improvement is a far different kettle of fish from trying to arrive at perfection. And, notice I said "arrive at perfection"....that's the biggest problem with the whole concept....it's predicated on the idea that somehow there's an end point. There's not....the journey continues to unfold. I've been playing professionally now for 35 years, and I am still improving all the time. And if I didn't, I'd give it up, because there would be nothing to look forward to. Nothing to pull me back into the process.

If you really want to get better, have fun along the way, and truly wow yourself and others with your progress....the most important step is to rid yourself of the need for perfection, because it simply doesn't exist. And pretending like it does takes you out of the forward momentum of a journey of expansion and improvement, and locks you in a prison of miserable constant disappointment in pursuit of a mythical endpoint that nobody could ever arrive at.

Do yourself the biggest favor ever and trade the pursuit of "perfection" for the perpetual quest for "a little better"....you won't just be happier, you'll become a far better player than you ever dreamed and you'll love the journey for life.

Enjoy my cover of this song from a livestream show I did on July 8, 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and then check out my favorite performance of it by Billy Joel himself on an old BBC show called "Old Grey Whistle Test" in 1977, and then check out the original recording from 1974.

If you'd like to explore my piano method more deeply, my best students use my video courses and join me for conversation and twice monthly Q&A Livestreams in my private community...you can find it all HERE. Thanks.

If the video doesn't show above, use THIS LINK to see it on YouTube