| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Joplin | |
| Mike -- 10/23/2004, 16:51:41 -- #8288 | |
| I am wondering what are the best Joplin Rags to learn after learning the Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer. What are the most popular after those two? | |
| 7 -- 10/23/2004, 20:27:45 -- #8294 | |
| Most popular I don't know, but MY favorite to play is "Easy Winners". The collapsing figure in the first movement was probably the seminal idea for Confrey's "Kitten on the Keys" trick. | |
| marksdg -- 10/25/2004, 10:11:02 -- #8332 | |
| I have an interesting question: Has anyone tried improvising in the Ragtime style? I never have, but I assume written rags were based on an improvised style. It seems to me that Rags generally have stride in the left hand, with syncopation in the right hand played straight and chords generally not more complicated than a dominant seventh (with occasional diminished chords and others thrown in rarely). It seems to me that a lot of ragtime would be much simpler to improvise than learn from sheet music. What chord progressions are common in ragtime? I might try tonight improvising with the right hand while keeping the left hand the same on "The Entertainer", maybe during the repeats for each section. This could be a good way of adding some crowd pleasing elements to a performance, while still keeping things interesting. Would improvised ragtime be called 'Jazz'? | |
| Bert -- 10/25/2004, 12:34:24 -- #8334 | |
| I'm assuming (always a problem I know) that, like me, many people got their introduction to Joplin from "The Sting" so that any of the songs from that sound track, such as "Solace - A Mexican Serenade", "Pineapple Rag" and "The Easy Winners" would be, at least, well known and recognizable to a large audience. I know the movie is what got me started trying to learn to play "The Entertainer" years ago. I would agree that improvising a rag should not be a problem, although I've never tried it either. Many of Scott's works follow a similar form in terms of the way sections are repeated. There is a "School of Ragtime" by him in the "Complete Piano Works" book, exercises that might be sufficient to get one going. There is the usual (humorous to me-I only wish it were an issue) warning not to play too fast. | |
| Mike -- 10/25/2004, 19:50:49 -- #8345 | |
| Improvising on the left hand part of a rag I have done. This does not neccesarily mean I was improvising a rag however. In fact I was not. I was using all kinds of Lydian scales and basically applying the Lydian chromatic concept to the Entertainer chord progresssion. I was improvising over the left hand part of a rag. There is a difference. What I was doing was Jazz. But if you are improvising Ragtime then what you are doing is playing Ragtime. | |
| Mike -- 10/25/2004, 19:51:19 -- #8346 | |
| your advise sounds sound to me Barry. | |
| Brotherdavies -- 10/26/2004, 06:45:56 -- #8356 | |
| Mike Pineapple rag is a nice bouncy one - the right hand part of the second section has become one of my favourite raggy riff's and it turns up quite often in my Dixieland style playing. Another of my favourites is Fig Leaf Rag - beautiful melody. Stop-Time rag is great - you need some taps on your boots to stamp the rhythm! One day I'll learn Magnetic Rag - the ultimate ragtime piece! Bro' | |
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