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Hi Chris, based on your own experience, which ones of the 8 rags you've learnt you consider the easier and the harder?



cheers

Question about Ragtime. Does anyone play and perform only Ragtime? I have always wondered about that so I just thought I would ask. As for me, I love Ragtime, Joplin the most. John

None of the rags I have learnt was easy but some were harder than others. The first four I learnt, each of which took several months to learn were

The Crysanthemum
Palm Leaf Rag
The Entertainer
Pleasant Moments

Of the four the Entertainer took most time for me to learn. Palm Leaf rag only has 3 movements which is a point in it's favour.

The hardest rag I play is

The Nonpareil

Three rags which I learnt more quickly were

Bink's Waltz
Swipesy
The Favorite

And there is a large set of rags which are in progress, all of which are going much more slowly than the three above and which I would consider to be on the hard side.

Eugenia
Maple Leaf Rag
Pine Apple Rag
Rosebud March
Weeping Willow
Paragon

Chris G, that's a great list! Nonpareil is such a nice one too.

Weeping Willow is on my Joplin top 5 favorites. It's not one of his popular works but it's such a melodious piece.

I've heard and read that some of Joplin's hardest works are: Gladioulus, Fig Leaf, Magnetic Rag, Breeze from Alabama, and Solace. Perhaps one day learn them.

Your host tries a bit of Billy Joel's Root Beer Rag.

First you'll here excerpts from Kathy's song, written for my friend Kathy, then a much shortened version of "rock opera" arrangement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and finally a bit of the Root Beer Rag.

Keep in mind this is a noisey setting in a huge hall (at the NAMM show in CA).

Hi, Frank.



Many of the top ragtime players focus on it pretty much exclusively. But many of these are not musicians who do nothing else for a living. Most have unrelated day jobs. But I can think of a few. Bob Milne comes to mind. Though he also does Barrelhouse Boogie from the 20's and early 30's which is closely related.

Other full-time musicians I'm personally acquainted with who play a variety of genres, like jazz, classical, and a contemporary ragtime offshoot known as Terra Verde include Dick Hyman, Max Morath, Tex Wyndham, Jeff Barnhart, Tony Caramia, Morton Gunnar Larsen, The Ophelia Orchestra, Paul Asaro (Leon Redbone's piano player), Mary Sammon (Buddy Guy's keyboard player), Butch Thompson (former pp for Garrison Keillor), Mimi Blais, Glen Jenks, Frank French, Scott Kirby... the list goes on. Almost forgot John Gill .The list of top ragtimers with day-jobs is even longer.

And then there's my wife Sue, who Frank mentioned. She's also a full-time musician. But her musical range is pretty broad, bordering on the eclectic. In addition to Ragtime she does allot of early blues, novelty, stride, boogie, swing, cabaret, show tunes, a little classical, country, pop, and rock. Her latest project is a tribute to one of her earliest influences, Laura Nyro. And lately she's been learning Bossa Nova. In Portuguese. She also seemed to make friends with Jacqueline Schwab at Frank's Cape Cod PianoWorld party and tried her hand at Ashokan Farewell which Jacqueline did for Ken Burns... I sense another influence coming on... perhaps to both of them.

But Sue's best known for her 7-year stint as the Music Director of the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, MO... she'll be there again this year. But now that she's "retired" from running it, she'll actually be able to focus on performing for a change.

Sedalia, btw, is the place to go if you're interested in Ragtime... here's this year's line-up:

http://www.scottjoplin.org/performers.htm

And that's only the paid performer/ticketed-concert lineup. If you play enough ragtime to keep it together for 15 minutes in front of a packed, free, outside venue circus tent, they'll likely squeeze you in somewhere. Or strut your stuff at the nightly open-piano after-hours party at the hotel. Many of today's top ragtimers started out that way. Come. It's a week-long ragtime blast.

Howard

That was awesome, Frank! Thanks for sharing that.

Hi Howard, Thank you very much for the response. You luck man, get to listen to all that piano for free. Here I have to play to listen and some times the sounds not so good. Maybe I just need to practice more. Thank you, John

I'll be there.

http://ragtimepiano.blogspot.com/2010/04/raggin-my-way-to-scott-joplin-ragtime.html

A great deal of very rare ragtime and stride sheet music has recently been uploaded to www.pianophilia.com. You will need to register, but otherwise is free.

Regards
Chris

Hello folks,

Do anybody know this book? It is a good edition?

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/Library-Of-Ragtime-Early-Blues-Piano/3594359

cheers

I have it and I love it I've been working on W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues from it - one of these days I'm going to have time to make that my recital piece.

The book has a pretty good section on Joplin, but if you've got Joplin elsewhere that's not the reason to buy this book. This book has great rags, cakewalks, and blues from lots of different composers. Too much fun

It's also got that plastic comb binding so it opens flat and stays there.

Cathy

Hi Cathy, thanks a lot for the reply!

As you said, I'm willing to buy it because the broad compilation of less known composers, AND because it has the comb binding as you pointed! The only doubt I had was whether the quality of the scores itselfes was good and reliable or not.

cheers

The quality is good. Very readable, and at least the Joplin and St. Louis Blues are original versions, so I assume the rest are, too.

Cathy

Ohh yes... the originality problem... would be terrible learning something not original, or an easier arrangement!

Anyway, I'm having a lot of trouble with my Swipesy by know, I think I'll wait a little bit more to buy this edition, I don't know if there are much rags of the swipesy level (people say it is one of the less dificult rags, I don't know what you think about it.. )

thx

I've become a fan of a few "newer" Rags, such as:

Mad Scientist Rag:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HucjsXrWtSo

Gitchee Gumee Rag:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk3Vp_74rmI

Thanks for those links, billertl, and welcome to the forums. Larisa used to post here on occasion, and I've seen her on the Elite Syncopation forums (I lurk there - I'm not a member). I take it you play some ragtime - there's a few of us here who do.

Cathy

Larisa is an amazing musician. I'm a ragtime artist myself, and I could only hope to be half as talented as Larisa someday. I've seen most of her Youtube videos, and I'm very impressed.

Another Ragtime person who I follow on Youtube alot is Tom Brier. I've heard he's recorded a few CD's, which I want to buy someday.

Ragtime is the genre of piano music that I'm drawn to the most. I also like Jazz, blues, and rock. But there's just something classic about Ragtime.

I have a Wellington Piano that was made in 1904, which I want to have restored (it's in rough shape). People have told me that the cost of restoring it would be so expensive, that it would be smarter to just buy a new piano instead. But I think I'll opt for restoring the 1904 piano, just because I think old pianos have character. 1904 was the height of the Ragtime craze, and I could just imagine a person playing Ragtime on that piano back when it was new.

I actually have several pianos, which could all use some work. And Ragtime lends itself well to my old pianos that are slightly out of tune.

I met Bill Edwards (i.e., "Perfessor Bill") one time at a concert he gave at a local church, and, he is simply one of the best ragtime players I have ever heard!

And, he's a really nice guy to know, too. Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCBC9K3SAZ8

His main homepage is simply:

http://www.perfbill.com/

And, of course, his unforgetable Hanon Rag <http://www.perfbill.com/albums/pbrec7.shtml> If you're bored with Hanon, try this!