Bird-Bath Rag

[Chris246t8kr]

Loved it! Tell Mr. Barrett that that was an excellent performance! :-)

[carrotville]

Was there anything that did not become the title to a rag, ha!

[Keeper1st]

If there is, I'll fill the void! Heheh! For this one, I was thinking of the title of Joe Lamb's "Bird-Brain Rag", and I had recently watched a blue jay splashing in a puddle, so I chose "Bird-Bath Rag" -- and put in appropriate "bird calls" and turns for the bird effects.

[tdub1941]

Beautiful music. I luvit!

See ya in Sacramento?

tdub1941 = Tom Warner

[Keeper1st]

Of course I'll be at Sacramento again this year. Got the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival coming up next month first...

[KawhackitaRag]

Ron, watching this again, I must say that it is a high compliment for you, the composer, to think highly enough of my performance of your music to post it here. Thank you.

[Keeper1st]

Aw c'mon, Andrew; you're great! I love the extra harmonies and stuff you put in. I had several comments from the audience members after that set too. And since I can't play it myself, I rely on the "professionals" like you, so to me it's a high compliment that you like to play my music!

[guyfrommalaysia]

Hi Ron. Could you teach me how to write a ragtime tune?

Stanley

[Keeper1st]

Well, if you know music theory, it's basically four 16-bar strains with chord structures similar to marches. Typically a half-cadence resolution to the dominant but sometimes to a III chord, and typically modulating to the subdominant key at the third strain. There are no steadfast rules, though. Add a syncopated melody and there you have it. Of course there are plenty of styles and variations. Lots of ragtime sheet music is in public domain and freely downloadable online.

[guyfrommalaysia]

Thanks Ron! The problem is that I have not finished my theory, it's until Grade 5 (and I know very very little about cadences and chord patterns) and my practical is until Grade 7 but surprisingly I could play Ragtime well although not all of the Novelties written by Zez Confrey or Billy Mayerl or Lew Pollack. Can I possibly have your e-mail address Ron?

[Keeper1st]

Click on my name; there's a link to my MIDI files web site. It has a link to send email to me. Just make sure it has "Ragtime" in the subject line so I notice it amid all the junk mail I get.

[ragtimebuddy]

Very nice performance. I like this.  What's next...Rebellious Rag? Royal Oak Rag?

[KawhackitaRag]

I don't have a video camera, but maybe if I work on it hard enough, I might be able to play one of those at Sutter Creek and possibly Mr. O'Dell might record me.

[KawhackitaRag]

Tell you what Jaime... I don't personally own a video camera, but next chance I have (which may be a few months), I will borrow my uncle's and tape myself playing "Rebellious Rag" and somehow get it onto Youtube.

[shangelina]

whoah! It's pretty long.. XD

[takineko]

that's rather pretty.. I was expecting something silly somehow with that title.

[Keeper1st]

Title inspired somewhat by Joe Lamb's "Bird-Brain Rag". I had seen a blue jay bathing in a puddle from our sprinklers a week earlier, then saw a dead blue jay in our driveway the day before composing this tune. Thinking of that is what brought the title to mind. With the title in place beforehand, of course I had to put "bird calls" into the music. I also used some turns like Lamb has in "Ragtime Nightingale".

[takineko]

well you should definantly be making money off your skills as a song writer-- I hope your book does well!

[Keeper1st]

Just happy to have people play and listen to my music. Don't care not to make money. And I've only tried to write one song. Ended up removing the lyrics 'cause they were dumb. So I'm not a songwriter. (Songs are sung.) BTW you know I wrote the music for Federica's "Angelina" promo animation, right? My first orchestrated music other than an electric guitars experiment!