Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Scott Joplin : Easy and difficult ragtimes

Hello all

how do you do ?

What would you say are the

1/easiest joplin ragtimes ?
2/most difficult joplin ragtimes ?

i just want your opinion
i think no joplin ragtime is easy

about the most difficult

maybe

wall street rag
maple leaf rag
stoptime rag

The "Entertainer" if I remember is definitely the easiest though once you've played a couple and got your chops up as for "stride" than they are all about the same as for difficulty.

I agree that there are no easy Scot Joplin rags although you can find simplified versions of some of them. Assuming you are playing the original unsimplified versions you should stay away for now from the ones which are played at a fast tempo, such as Maple Leaf Rag and Pineapple Rag. The Entertainer is probably as good a place to start as any. The Chrysanthemum and Palm Leaf Rag are two others that you might want to look at.

Here is an older post with an opinion that I found informative:

https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...%20rag%20do%20you%20know.html#Post560971

once you get used to the left hand jumping around and the predictable syncopation, they seem easy.

good luck

With all due respect, The "Entertainer" isnt so easy .... maybe you think it's easy because it's in C ?.
Like many rags, The difficulty is to play it from A to Z ; i dont know your level but you got to have a good level to play the end !

With Joplin, i dont want to start, i want to end ! ( just kidding )

Btw, who ever tried the stoptime rag ? you need alot of concentration !

C is not an easy key to play in. In general, the more black keys, the better. The Entertainer sucks, though. Maybe it's a mental thing you have to get through to play something that bad.

What!?!?!?! LIES! On all accounts!

Haha, I guess we're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one because C major is the easiest key for me -- and I love the entertainer.



Oh, and by the way, of the 2 joplin pieces I have learned -- maple leaf rag and the entertainer -- maple leaf rag is much more difficult (but the other one isn't too easy either).

The Maple Leaf Rag is probably the easiest difficult-sounding piece I know of, though I'm sure there's more difficult ones. I learned it within my first three months of playing piano and I'm definitely no prodigy. It's just really easy patterns, not to mention many many repetitions. It was actually the B section with the big jumps that I had the most trouble with, if anything. Judging by the complexity of Solace, I would say it's probably one of his more difficult pieces. I had a little trouble with Heliotrope Bouquet as well because it's totally different from his normal style.

While that is true, maple leaf rag can be made much easier/harder depending on what tempo you use. If you actually use a "tempo di marcia," the piece becomes little more difficult than like linus and lucy; however, if you play it a bit more quickly, as most people now do, (perhaps at the speed in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B04--XmZiE or even a little faster), parts like the 3rd section can easily trip you up (or at least me -- if you really could play it at full speed with few mistakes within 3 months of play, I probably would put at or near the prodigy category).

Hi SJFAN!!

I began my Ragtime playing back around early 2009 with a simplified version of "The Entertainer." It didn't have all the octaves, but it did have syncopation. Once you understand, and can execute syncopation, any rag is "learn-able" in my opinion.

Like another poster stated, start with a simplified version and then work your way up. Find one that has fewer notes, fewer octaves, but the same basic structure. As your fingers get stronger and you learn how to play the complex chords and octaves that are part of Joplin's full versions, you'll have a "good foundation" if you learn the easier stuff first.

I am learning Maple Leaf Rag right now (my 4th rag), and got the 3 sections up to my desired performance tempo (84 BPM).
The trio is one of the most difficult (if not THE most difficult) that I've encountered so far. The 1st 2 sections (or the 4th) aren't difficult at all, IMO. Also, "Weeping Willow", which I just submitted to the ABF recital isn't so bad either - except for the 2nd strain...that one was really tricky.

Good luck!

Hello,

'Weeping Willow' is the first (and so far only) ragtime piece I'm learning. I'm around 1/2 to 2/3 through the piece and its taken me a few weeks to get to that point.

I've been taking piano lessons for around 9 months and after completing the first intro book (John Thompson series), I have the technique and basic skills to move onto styles which I like, ragtime being one of them. It has been a huge jump for me to go from an elementary/into book, straight into ragtime, but with practice I'm learning the first piece nicely.

My teacher purposely picked Weeping Willow as the first piece bc it is easier than most others in the Joplin book.

Good luck with whichever piece you choose to move forward with. I feel that consistent practice will make most any of these rags second nature in time.

An old thread, but a good topic.

For those of you who like Joplin, I'd recommend for contrast the many lovely and short piano pieces by Ignacio Cervantes.