Robert: Now, just for all the classical aficionados out there, you could take a classical piece.As a matter of fact, when you first got here and you started playing this piano, I heard you, and I said, 'Wait a second. And Avicii, if you know the tune, it this 's this dance tune. I did an arrangement of 'Wake Me Up' by Avicii and that's done really well on YouTube but I turned it into a ragtime tune. Jonny: Actually, as a matter of fact, yes. Robert: Is there something that's very popular and contemporary that you've turned into your little magical ragtime? Robert: So are there.Just for our audience, I'm sure they're gonna.And we got to talk more about this but I'm having so much fun listening to you. And that's something I enjoy doing is taking songs on the radio and raggifying it. You know it doesn't have to be this old, like hundred-year-old song. Jonny: So you can take any song and do it in ragtime. Well, I'm just gonna say, like here's a song everyone knows with syncopation, okay? Like could you do a little.just a little arrangement of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb?' So people could hear what you could with a simple tune like that in a ragtime style? Robert: I thought, like, some popular song. Robert: You know I wanted to have you do like a demonstration. You know, syncopation is basically where you have a strong beat in the left hand and then the right hand is playing against that beat. Things that are off the beat and I tell you when you listen to ragtime, it's almost impossible not to move. Robert: However, what does differentiate ragtime music from other styles of music is the syncopated rhythms. Which ragtime really, that was not in vogue yet. They make the mistake of playing kind of that swing feel da da-da da-da. The other thing that I think a lot of people, who are not really familiar with ragtime music. Robert: So you wonder if they were calibrated to play back, you know? Jonny: There are audio recordings of those piano. Robert: Are there any audio recordings of Scott Joplin? And I just think you should play it how you feel it, and I think he actually played.If you listen to the Piano Rolls and of Scott Joplin playing, he actually was playing at like 120 beats per minute. I like to play ragtime fast and so people will comment, 'Oh, this is way too fast,' and other people love it fast. You know he wrote on the top of his music, 'do not play fast' and so. Jonny: Well, you know, he's the king of ragtime so he gets to. Maybe you can give me an idea of was he on track with that or is it some misunderstanding or is it.? Robert: So maybe that's a good place to start. Scott Joplin's quoted as saying that, 'Ragtime should never be played fast.' And yet, you think of ragtime as kind of an upbeat music. There's a few things about ragtime that I have heard about and I don't consider myself an expert. So it crosses that threshold that covers both genres of music, which makes it a natural fit to have us here together. And yet, there are ragtime bands where people are improvising.

Like rags of Scott Joplin are incredibly famous.

Interestingly, some ragtime is all written out just like classical concert music. Robert: The subject of the show today is 'How to Play Ragtime,' and Jonny is an expert at ragtime, as you're gonna hear in a minute.įirst of all, I just wanna talk a little bit about what is ragtime? Ragtime is actually an early form of jazz music that came about just before the turn of the 20th century. I'm Robert Estrin with a very special show today featuring guest, Jonny May. In 1976, Joplin was posthumously awarded a special Pulitzer Prize for his contributions to American music.Robert: Hi and welcome to and. His second opera, Treemonisha, was never fully staged during his life. The score to his first opera, A Guest of Honor, was confiscated in 1903 with his belongings for non-payment of bills, and is now considered lost. It also brought Joplin a steady income, though he did not reach this level of success again and frequently had financial problems. Publication of his 'Maple Leaf Rag' in 1899 brought him fame. There he taught future ragtime composers Arthur Marshall, Scott Hayden, and Brun Campbell. Joplin moved to Sedalia, Missouri, in 1894 and earned a living as a piano teacher. He went to Chicago for the World's Fair of 1893, which played a major part in making ragtime a national craze by 1897. During the late 1880s, he left his job as a railroad laborer and traveled the American South as an itinerant musician. Joplin grew up in a musical family of railway laborers in Texarkana, Arkansas, and developed his own musical knowledge with the help of local teachers. Dubbed the 'King of Ragtime,' he wrote over 100 original ragtime pieces, a ragtime ballet, and two operas. Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist.

Scott joplin ragtime should never be