What is ragtime? -- A demonstration

For those of you who have been enjoying the ragtime music on my channel but may not know exactly what constitutes a "rag", I thought I'd make a little demonstration.

I know I've had people send me links to tunes, saying, "This is a good rag..." only the tune actually was a march and not a rag. And I remember my own confusion at what syncopation actually meant when I was learning about music.

Because we're surrounded by syncopated music today, it is easy to be confused by what "ragtime" actually means.

All forms of popular music today are directly descended from ragtime. The first published blues was a rag ("Memphis Blues -- A Southern Rag"); jazz began not as a musical genre but as a style of playing rags and ragtime songs. And of course those styles evolved into swing, rock'n'roll, country, bebop, disco, funk, soul, hip-hop, techno, alternative -- all forms of pop music have ragtime syncopation in them, making it more difficult for modern ears to realize just what it is that makes a tune a "rag".

Category:

Education

Tags:

• ragtime
• syncopation
• tutorial
• demo
• rag

[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.

[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.

[RibAnimation]

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

[ThisIsKuroCat]

The Airplatform Theme of Super Mario is also a great example

[yoshiki1022]

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

[ShinigamiSama6666]

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

Good video btw. ;)

[wretchedbleach]

Whoa no dislikes. This must be good.

[axisrules1]

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