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Ragtime play hardcopy10/11/2023 The left hand is jumping around in a straight rhythm, while your right hand is also jumping around, but in a syncopated pattern. Ragtime play hardcopy how to#One of the hardest aspects of learning to play ragtime piano is how to make the right and left hands act independently. At the top of his sheet music for Maple Leaf Rag he’s written “NOT TOO FAST!” Oh, how many piano players have ignored this direction! And while Joplin played it unusually slow compared to modern recordings, his point still stands. Scott Joplin’s notes on the topic have become pretty famous in their own right. People should remark “Wow, they make that look so easy!” Stay in control, not too fast. Ragtime should be controlled as if to give the illusion it’s not hard to play. That leads to sloppy playing, technical inaccuracy, which makes you sound amateurish. Ragtime play hardcopy full#While your ragtime playing is full of fast notes, we shouldn’t speed up the overall tempo too much. Ragtime was heavily influenced by John Philip Sousa’s marches, which were around 120bpm - walking speed. But I think if you listen to a lot of ragtime music, you’ll realize it’s not really as fast as it sounds. Ragtime is high energy, and all too often ragtime pianists equate high energy with a fast tempo. While there’s no hard and fast rule, most players I know consider Ragtime to be in straight time and Stride to be be either straight or swung. As Ragtime evolved into Stride music around that time, players started introducing a swing feel into their playing. Swing music didn’t really become mainstream until the 1930’s, after the surge of ragtime popularity in the 20’s. Stride was born in the era of marches, and nothing is more rhythmically strict than a march. Straight 8th NotesĪ lot of beginning ragtime players make the mistake of playing ragtime with a swing feel. Chords also change at a reasonable pace, only every bar or two. We don't hear much "outside" harmony in Ragtime. The chords also tend to be diatonic to the key of the song, with the occasional secondary dominant. (Someone forgot to tell this to Art Tatum or Oscar Peterson.) When you fill up the space with arpeggiated fillers and flashy runs, you don't need fast chord changes to create excitement. Notice how our arrangement of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Starsounds fun and jazzy, even though we've only used 2 chords. Ragtime music usually has rather simple harmonic structures, especially compared to more sophisticated jazz harmonies. Ragtime play hardcopy free#Or, if you want to shortcut all that, Piano with Jonny has a free video teaching ragtime arpeggio fills and runs (he calls these "rag rolls" in the video). By keeping the bass notes and the chords close together, it eliminates the technical challenge of jumping the left hand too far. The easiest way to play a Ragtime stride left hand is by alternating single notes in the bass with chords. This is often called an “Oom Pah Bass,” as it emulates the rhythmic sounds of tubas and drums of contemporary marches of the time. In it’s most basic form, the player alternates bass notes on beats 1 & 3, with chords on 2 & 4. Ragtime piano is defined first and foremost by the left hand stride pattern. Let’s each about each of these individually first, and then we’ll discuss some exercises to put them together into a song. Harmonically simple chord changes, especially compared to jazz.įor a casual piano player, none of these are too difficult to learn, but can be harder to combine together fluently.Ragtime piano has a very distinctive “old time saloon” sound which is defined by some key characteristics: Here’s a performance of Jelly Roll Morton’s Fingerbreaker, a notoriously challenging rag. Stride piano is one of the most difficult styles to master, due to its sheer technical nature. This ultimately created a new style similar to Ragtime, called Stride. These compositions, like The Entertainer, Maple Leaf Rag or Solace are fully written and can be learned note for note from the sheet music.Īs ragtime evolved over time, particularly through live performances in clubs during the 1920/30’s, it become more improvisatory and virtuosic. Ragtime requires you to have a strong sense of rhythm and some technical proficiency to play it well.Ĭomposed ragtime, like the rags of Scott Joplin, are a great first step for classically trained pianists. So, is ragtime hard to play? Ragtime is too hard for complete beginners, but is approachable by those who have been playing piano seriously for at least 2-3 years. They are a lot of fun to play, and can really impress your friends. One of the most common questions I hear from beginning piano students is "can I learn to play Maple Leaf Rag?" Or, "Is The Entertainer approachable as a beginner?" Ragtime and stride piano are some of the most popular old-time piano styles.
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