response 81 of 256:

Sep 13 05:42 UTC 1997

_Sheet Music_ magazine gave pointers when ragtime was in a revival in the
70's.  If I remember correctly, to play ragtime, or to play a ragged rhythm,
in other words, you had to picture a drunken man staggering down the stairs.
See if you can find some of these back issues.  

Ragtime, in my opinion, isn't necessarily as difficult as some 'classical'
music-- (I think John could be including Romantic and Impressionist [the work
of Debussy] here).  What *is* difficult are the left-hand passages, which roll
along as frequently as the right-hand ones, and the stamina you will need to
play some pieces.  I still can't get all the way through "Easy Winners" by
Joplin before I start slowing down.  My left wrist gets tired..well, you
get the idea.  FOllow John's advice and start with the easy stuff, building
up to harder pieces.

response 83 of 256:

Sep 13 18:24 UTC 1997

There are two aspects to ragtime's difficulty: First, the sheer
physical demands, especially in the left hand (I agree with lumen
here). Secondly, style and interpretation issues, especially if
you come to ragtime already familiar with a different tradition
-- there are a lot of adjustments to be made in one's approach
to the music.

I've found that practice practice practice is the solution to both
these problems. It gets easier. Now that I'm "in" the style, I can
learn a new piece much more easily than I used to.

Lately I've been working on a couple of Eubie Blake pieces, "The
Baltimore Todalo" (pronounced: too-da-loo') and "Poor Jimmy Green".
These are significantly more demanding physically than most of
Joplin, Lamb, or Scott -- lots of octaves and tenths (Blake must
have had BIG hands) that require a lot of stretching and leave my
hands quite tired after I've done it for a while. Plus the usual
amount of jumping around in the left hand. But with practice, it's
slowly getting more comfortable.

response 85 of 256:

Sep 14 00:50 UTC 1997

Tenths?  My, my, my...I don't know that I'll ever be quite up to that.

response 87 of 256:

Oct 18 12:38 UTC 1997

I can handle the octaves, but the tenths that abound in Eubie
Blake's music are, literally, a "stretch" for me.  But it's
coming.

The cover of "Sincerely Eubie Blake", a collection of his rags
edited by Terry Waldo, has a photo of Blake's hands, and they
are indeed ET-like. In the introduction, Waldo has this to say
about left hand technique:

        It cannot be overemphasized how important it is to
        "lay down" a solid beat with the left hand. Eubie
        always taps his foot or "stomps" in order to
        maintain this strong rhythmic foundation. Without
        it there is nothing to build on. Ragtime players
        must have a strong left hand and keep good time.
        While often the straight 2/4, boom-chick pattern
        is abandoned in Eubie's rags, there is always a
        strong rhythmic pulse. It should be played in a
        way that it could be danced to.
            Unfortunately, it helps to have large hands to
        play these rags. Eubie has an enormous span which
        has made it easy for him to stretch over a twelfth
        on the piano (i.e. from C to G, 12 notes away).
        Playing tenths is nothing for him. For some of us
        with smaller hands, the task is a little more
        difficult, but it can be mastered. All these rags
        contain tenths in the left hand--most are rolled,
        however, and those not so marked could be played
        with a fast roll to give the illusion of all
        notes being played simultaneously. In any case,
        it will be necessary to practice the left hand
        until these full spacings are comfortable. The
        style of employing tenths in the left hand is
        central to Eubie's music and to the whole
        Eastern school of stride piano.

response 89 of 256:

Oct 22 10:03 UTC 1997

Well, "school" in the sense of "a class of people whose work and
style demonstrates some common influence" rather than an actual
educational institution. Different styles of ragtime performance
and composition evolved in different parts of the country. Thus
there was Missouri ragtime, New York ragtime, etc.

Today I'm off to Savannah Georgia to attend the annual Tom
Turpin Ragtime Festival -- 4 days of immersion in ragtime
concerts, lectures, and the unique Savannah ambience. There's
a stellar lineup of artists this year: John Arpin, Dick
Zimmerman, Mimi Blais, Terry Waldo, Trebor Tichenor, Bob Darch,
Bob Milne, David Jasen, and others. Should be quite fun. When
it's over, I'll file a report here of course.

response 91 of 256:

Oct 23 13:46 UTC 1997

Accent.    ;-)

(Not to worry, John will be back in a few days and you'll
 get a much better answer.)

response 93 of 256:

Oct 27 19:45 UTC 1997

I'm not enough of a ragtime scholar to comment knowledgeably on
regional differences. There's a book by David Jasen and Trebor
Tichenor called _Rags and Ragtime_, recently reprinted by Dover,
that might give you some insights. I found it in Barnes & Noble
a few weeks ago.

By the way, the Savannah festival was WONDERFUL. Superb lineup
of performers, lots of great music, and some opportunities for
me to play. I was less bashful about doing that than I was last
year when I was brand new to the festival circuit. Full report
will have to wait until I've more time.

response 95 of 256:

Dec 12 01:33 UTC 1997

An announcement of interest to folks in the Ann Arbor area: This
Sunday, Dec. 14th, is the 24 annual Ragtime-Jazz Holiday Bash
ath the Unitarian-Universalist Church, 1917 Washtenaw Avenue,
Ann Arbor, 8 p.m. Tickets $12 at the door (students & seniors
$7).

Featured artists are Bob Seeley, James Dapogny, Bob Milne,
William Bolcom, Joan Morris, Bill Albright, and "special,
surprise guests."

If you go, get there early! Seating is first come first served,
and the place tends to be packed by the half an hour or more
before the concert. I plan on getting there at least an hour
ahead of time.

response 97 of 256:

Mar 19 13:21 UTC 1998

Mary's cello teacher held an informal family recital/party at the
Unitarian Church in Ann Arbor, as part of which I got to play a
ragtime piano solo: Harry Guy's "Pearl of the Harem" (1901). Like
Guy's other rags, it exhibits a strong classical influence. 
There are interesting switches throughout between major and minor
modes, and between the traditional oompah-oompah bass line of
ragtime and other bass patterns -- rather unusual for ragtime.

The piano at the church is a Baldwin grand with a light, responsive
touch, and with its booming bass is voiced very well for ragtime.
It was a pleasure to play on it. (The same piano is used at the
annual "Ragtime Christmas Bash" held at the church, so it's
understandable that it has been ragtime-optimized.)

response 99 of 256:

Mar 19 17:26 UTC 1998

Is there a specific "Japanese style" of ragtime, or is the above listed as
such because it has something based on a Japanese song?

response 101 of 256:

Mar 25 02:01 UTC 1998

At the Tom Turpin conference in Savannah last October, I met
someone who is quite a collector of old ragtime sheet music.
She had a ton of Xeroxes of the stuff that she let me look
through and take whatever I wanted, so I grabbed a bunch of
things that looked interesting. Except for one piece -- Joe
Jordan's "That Teasin' Rag" -- it's all been sitting in my
piano bench for the last few months, unused. A few days ago
I started looking through it again and came up with a couple
of George Botsford gems: "Rag, Baby Mine" and "Boomerang Rag",
from 1913 and 1916 respectively. They're happy, bouncy little
numbers with the infectiousness that characterizes Botsford's
compositions (e.g. the above-mentioned "Hyacinth Rag"). They're
really quite similar in feel, although the 3rd strain of
"Boomerang" has a Missouri "folk" feel that is unusual for
Botsford and reminds me a good bit of Arthur Marshall.

I plan to make both of these pieces part of my "from memory"
repertoire.

response 103 of 256:

May 3 23:56 UTC 1998

...and here's my report. [WARNING: 120 lines long]

This year's Zehnder's Ragtime Festival in Frankenmuth Michigan
was great fun with some fine musical highlights. The performers
were Bob Milne, Sue Keller, Kerry Price, and Bo Grumpus. Most of
the events took place in Zehnder's Restaurant, fabled for its
chicken dinners.

I'd not encountered Kerry Price before. She turned out to be a
blues, ragtime, and jazz singer/pianist from Detroit who was
active in the southeast Michigan musical scene in the 1960's and
1970's but who pretty much dropped out to become a full-time
music teacher at Detroit Country Day School. Her appearance in
Frankenmuth was something of a comeback, I gather. She's a fine
blues singer with a strong voice that carries a lot of emotion,
and I was happy to have the opportunity to hear her. She is also
something of a scholar on the musical history of the period --
this was evident from her comments at one of the seminars held
as part of the festival. I figure that those 8th graders at
Country Day must be getting a wonderful musical education. The
music scene's loss is education's gain, or something like that.

Bo Grumpus is actually a three-person band: guitarist (and
occasional vocalist) Craig Ventresco, string bass player Marty
Eggers, and washboardist Pete Devine (in addition to washboard,
he also plays cymbals and gourds for the group -- no drums
though). They're based in San Francisco and travel around the
country with their act. They're excellent musicians who
specialize in old-time ragtime tunes that you probably never
heard of, and they do them in an entertaining style that seems
just right.

Milne and Keller I've commented on earlier in this item. Milne
is a splendid ragtime/boogie-woogie/stride/whatever player with
a unique style and prodigious technique. He lives in Lapeer,
Michigan and used to play restaurants, saloons, etc. all over
the Southeast Michigan area in the 1960's, 1970's, and
1980's.(and has written an amusing book on his experiences as a
"journyeman piano player"). He's established enough of a
reputation that he can restrict his appearance mostly to concert
halls and festivals these days. Keller is an accomplished
pianist/singer from New York City (recently moved to Chicago)
who specializes in ragtime and other vintage popular styles.
(Keller was also scheduled to get married the week following the
festival. I assume that this event took place.)

I attended the entire 4-day festival this year, from Thursday's
"Vaudeville Night" through the Sunday morning brunch and
concert. At Thursday's performance I met up with Audrey Van
Dyke, a ragtime enthusiast and BIG TIME sheet music collector
who lives in the Washington DC area and whom I'd met at last
October's Savannah festival. Her parents live in Michigan and
she'd brought them along. For about ten years she's been going
to antique stores, estate sales, and the like, seeking out piano
sheet music from the early ragtime era through the popular
styles of the 1920's and 1930's. She's amassed quite a
collection and likes to give out xerox copies to people whom she
figures can make good use of it. Luckily I am on Audrey's list
of such people. She handed me a package of music about an inch
and a half thick and said there would be more coming on
subsequent days. Since an inch and a half was more than I
expected to get in toto, I found myself wondering just how much
music she was going to bestow on me but didn't press the
subject.

In addition to being a collector, Audrey plays piano and is a
decent interpreter of Scott Joplin's music. After the scheduled
performers were done and most of the audience had cleared out
(except for Audrey's parents and a few stragglers) Audrey and I
decided to commandeer the piano and try out various pieces we'd
been working on. Among other things, I played some George
Botsford pieces I'd acquired from Audrey in Savannah, Joe Lamb's
"Old Folks Rag" (which brings in the theme from Stephen Foster's
"Old Folks at Home" at the end), and Lamb's unpublished "Ragged
Rapids Rag". After I'd done "Old Folks", Bob Milne walked into
the room (he'd been listening out in the lobby, unbeknownst to
me), said he liked my playing, and encouraged me to play some
more in the Tap Room, which was going to be set up on subsequent
days for "after hours" activities. I thanked him for the kind
words. After I was done, Audrey played a couple of Joplin pieces
-- "Searchlight Rag" (one of my favorites) and "The Nonpareil",
both of which she did in fine style, with some creative and
highly appropriate embellishments on the repeats.

On Friday, my stack of photocopied sheet music from Audrey had
grown to about 9 inches in thickness, and on Saturday -- to my
utter astonishment -- she handed me another 9 inch stack. I
haven't counted but figure there must be hundreds of individual
pieces in the lot. My plan is to work through them gradually,
separating the wheat from the chaff and adding the ones I like
to my playing repertoire. The process is going to take a while.

Friday and Saturday nights were devoted to dinner concerts in
Zehnder's main dining room. If you're not familiar with
Zehnder's, they are into quantity as well as quality, and the
buffet dinners featured a huge array of wonderfully prepared
dishes to choose from. After stuffing themselves to the gills,
the audience is treated to an evening of music from the
headliners. On Saturday, Mary came up from Ann Arbor to join me,
and we attended the Saturday evening and Sunday brunch concerts
together. On Saturday we found ourselves seated across from Bob
Milne's in-laws from Olivet, and I learned that Bob's wife Linda
-- who accompanies him to all the festivals and helps sell his
sheet music, CD's, and tapes -- is herself a ragtime player.
All the concerts were good, but Saturday night's was especially
so -- the performers were in top form and their energy level was
high.

I took advantage of the "open piano" opportunities in Zehnders'
lounge to play some more pieces, include Sue Keller's "Cranberry
Stomp" with Keller in the room. I've always been prone to
nervousness performing in public and find that informal
opportunities like after-hours sessions at ragtime festivals are
a good opportunity for more experience, which seems to help get
the anxiety level under control. "It gets easier", as they say.

Audrey Van Dyke has also filed a report on the Frankenmuth
festival, in the newsgroup news:rec.music.ragtime. It doesn't
seem to have been indexed by Altavista yet, but when it does
I'll post the URL here.

response 105 of 256:

May 13 02:15 UTC 1998

A conspiracy of the Johns, eh?  :)

I'd be interested in seeing that piece when it's finished, lumen...