What is ragtime? -- A demonstration

[zoid405]

You know what that means... "Hey Tom we need you to brierize something!"

[yoshiki1022]

I think he sometimes sounds like Michael J Fox... who is my most favorite actor... just saying.

[ShinigamiSama6666]

Dear keeper , do you still have the sheet music of the ragtime tiny toon intro.

Im looking for it.

Much love.

Shini-

[Keeper1st]

@ShinigamiSama6666 I've never had sheet music of a ragtime version of the Tiny Toons theme. Martin Spitznagel (YouTube's "spitzfire1138") is the only person I've heard play it in ragtime, but I'm sure he never wrote down his arrangement. I do have a sheet music transcription of the TTA theme (from an old Sheet Music Magazine), though it's not a good one. One of these days I should make my own, sensible arrangement.

[ShinigamiSama6666]

@Keeper1st Ah i see , i got confused i guess ...

Good video btw. ;)

[wretchedbleach]

Whoa no dislikes. This must be good.

[wealthdigger]

So just wondering. For it to be a rag does it have to be kinda a march base but with uneven "timings"?

Becouse as you said a lot of songs today have uneven "timings" like Comptine d'un autre été but would not call them ragtime -.-"

[Keeper1st]

@wealthdigger Yeah, because syncopation became ubiquitous, the term "ragtime" fell out of fashion and now refers specifically pre-jazz syncopated music. Really, ragtime evolved into all these things. As legendary Eubie Blake put it once when someone referred to Stride, "What won't they call ragtime next?"

[axisrules1]

1:07 Normal

1:34 March

3:06 Ragtime

5:20 One-step

I would like to request the sheetmusic nshown in this video, I think it's a fun thing to play.

Thanks!

[Keeper1st]

@axisrules1 I didn't save it. I only threw it together for the video.

[axisrules1]

@Keeper1st That's to bad. I think I'll recreate it then. Thanks for the great demonstration!

[SeriousEli]

How can I call a notation like the second example; that is not ragtime?

[Keeper1st]

@SeriousEli It's a march.

[chriswrightmusic]

I respectfully disagree with you about ragtime being the first music to use syncopated melodies. Folk music has a long history of it from almost every culture. The problem is that most folk music wasn't written down and preserved. Even Mozart used syncopated melodies - check out the main theme of his Symphony No.25, First Movement and tell me that isn't syncopation. If he were to just put a polka-like oom-pah bass it would sound like ragtime.

[Keeper1st]

@chriswrightmusic There's no syncopation in that theme. All the accented notes are on a downbeat or an upbeat. There is a hornpipe by baroque composer Jean Baptiste Loeillet that is almost entirely in syncopation. It's quite unusual.

[chriswrightmusic]

@Keeper1st

Actually that theme does has syncopation. Syncopation, to make sure our definitions are the same, is when a note gains rhythmic interest by occurring at an unexpected place. Check the score again - the rhythm at the beginning is chock full of syncopation. Not trying to nitpick, but the idea that ragtime invented syncopation is a bit stretched. I do agree that ragtime is definitely the grandfather of today's pop as it helped bring about dixieland and early jazz.

[Keeper1st]

@chriswrightmusic Syncopation is not melody notes in unexpected places per se; it is accented melody notes that are out of sync with the underlying melody. Adding a march line to your Mozart example would just make a march -- not a rag. You'd have to move the melody notes off-beat to create syncopation, same as demonstrated here with the canon. That extensive use of syncopation is what caused some to believe that ragtime was physically unhealthy to listen to.

[geevboeksie]

lol it took me like a whole hour to learn that little piece O.o (slowly)

ok I'm a beginner (9 months lessons) but still.. to play ragtime fast you must really have a perfect hand coördination... and to play it while sightreading.. damn

sounds great though :D.. hopefully in 10 years I'll be able to play some good ragtime tunes (and learn them a lot faster lmao)

[mrsid6581]

Hey, I see you have a Commodore 1702 monitor there... Possibly a C64 connected to it? Would love to hear Tom Brier play some SID music... ;)

[Keeper1st]

@mrsid6581 No C64 connected to it these days -- just a VHS-DVD converter. I've used the 1702 as my television monitor since the '80s until this year (typically using a VCR as a tuner). I don't have TV in my room now that Linda and I have our own place and a nice HDTV in our living room. Can't imagine any monitor made today lasting for more than a quarter century like the 1702 has!

[doomtrain113]

even though i have listened to ragtime, this actually an education for me, the next period in histery that i will be studying is prohibition and the roaring 20's, thank you for the knowledge, i will credit you in my class

[RibAnimation]

My music teacher used this video to tell us about ragtime lol

[Keeper1st]

@RibAnimation Cool.

[AlikZeus]

Now I get it what ragtime means! Pretty interesting, thanks for demonstration!

[Ragtime95]

wich program are you using ?

[Keeper1st]

@Ragtime95 That's an old version of Sibelius.

[Ragtime95]

Another great video from Keeper1st!

[AceWissle]

Now that was very intesting!

Thanks ;)

[BachScholar]

Excellent explanations. The one-step sounds like Schumann.

[Henry1993bc]

thank you for this, very helpful!!

[ciararavenblaze]

PACHELBEL'S CANON!!!!! O_O  *fangirl moment*

...oh, and also, thanks muchly for the demonstration--it makes a little more sense now. :D

[RagtimePassion]

Hi, thanks for your comment to me, and... this is great and you have your own talent!! I enjoy very much, while it would be better if some short caption could be added for someone like me, who is not good at English listening... ;-) Anyway I hope you will continue this challenge!

[paniq303]

Cool stuff, thanks man. The last, one-stepped version of the canon sounds like it could be syncopated once more, that is.. lead notes put between the bass notes - if i'm not mistaken. will you do that in a future video?

[Keeper1st]

@paniq303 I contemplated doing that, showing how you can still put in syncopated fill-ins within a one-step, but I didn't want to confuse the issue.

[paniq303]

@Keeper1st heh... i got really invested in that pachelbel ragtime :P

[KevinFloris]

I'm going to use this for my composition at school. Thanks for posting this right when I needed it :D

[maxepane]

Someone should hand Tom a condensed score of the Canon in D major and just see how he can improvise it into ragtime on the spot. I think it would be really cool to hear what all he does with it.

[Keeper1st]

@maxepane I'm sure a score would not be required!

[FriendshipSeven]

GREAT explanation, Keeper1st!! :-)

[iMacxXuserXx485]

Wow howd you know I didn't know?

[KidOnTheNet]

I think I understand, though I probably don't.

[tdub1941]

Nice work Mr. O'Dell!

I enjoyed this lesson very much.

Proof that old dogs still have tricks yet to learn.

RagJazzMonkey Tom

[PatJamma]

I was expecting "what is love" lol

[plaxcaster]

Great explanation, I still had a few doubts about some concepts, also loved the version of the canon-D you did, you should a full version one day =)

[theCrimosnBeard]

"All popular music today has syncopated melodies"?

Really? I thought that syncopation in contemporary music was mostly exclusive to the descendants of jazz, such as prog rock.

Is syncopation accenting off-notes, and one type of syncopation is to delay or accelerate the delivery a note?

[Keeper1st]

@theCrimosnBeard Also descendants of blues such as rock'n'roll are syncopated. And of course, jazz and blues were both evolutions of ragtime. One only needs to listen to modern popular music on the radio -- whether it be pop, country, hip-hop, alternative, or anything else -- to hear the syncopated melodies that came out of ragtime.

[Chris246t8kr]

I like the newspaper article you mention, it's funny what kind of thoughts they come up with. I understand now what you meant by "One-step" like you mentioned in Spinach Rag :-)

[ItsTheUkuleleMan]

What software were yo using?

Also, thanks for the lesson, that cleared up a lot of things. :D

[Megabine]

Wow that was awesome :D

[reprac9]

Very interesting & a well explained video.. thanks for posting ,, cheers from ,, dave ,, a life time long ragtime junky !!

[cebukid70]

Do you have the sheet music for that Canon rag? great video. IMO, once you understand and can execute syncopation, you can play almost any rag.

[TheFerrymanSong]

Thanks! ^_^

[Smouvmaster]

This is a really good way of explaining music styles :) I love this vid.

[ThisIsKuroCat]

The Airplatform Theme of Super Mario is also a great example

[AlderDragon]

Great video. I learned something! Very informative.

[isambo400]

I used to assume syncopation meant the left hand bounciness, but then I got what it was because of the way Bach .Scholar used the word in some video of his

[asselin66]

very interesting! great to learn new things



[chickdigger802]

Are there any rag that could work with drums?

[Keeper1st]

@chickdigger802 All of them. Most ragtime bands have a percussionist.

[DarkMatter43]

This really cleared up some confusion. Thanks!

[nineko]

This is very clear and very well done :)

[LiiChinHo]

Veryyyyy informative thanks a lot!

[Jerry96587]

well i definetly learned something today. Thank you for the vid.