# Music by Genre > Old-Time, Roots, Early Country, Cajun, Tex-Mex >  Ragtime

## stevenmando

Hi just got the CD Mandolins at the Cake Walk and i love the music its a good speed for me , not to fast and not to slow, also i just found a book through Elderly Instruments Ragtime for Mandolins and violins and i am looking forward to getting that .
Never thought about ragtime all these years although i have always loved Vadville and that music of that era seems like good times.

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## Pete Summers

I have the Ragtime for Mandolin and Violin book. Excellent work, with both country rags and some adaptations from piano rags.
I'm big on Ragtime music and it is a natural for the mandolin. Here's a couple of my favorite YouTube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpy4j...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1l5P...eature=related

Both of these transcriptions are included in the Ragtime for Mandolin book, along with many more.
 :Smile:

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## Steve Davis



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## Pete Summers

A reminder for those who live in the Midwest, the annual Scott Joplin ragtime festival in Sedalia, Mo., is June 6 - 9. Mostly piano music, but also some string band groups. Worth a trip if you're within driving distance.
 :Mandosmiley:

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## Pete Summers

Here's another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBm7O...eature=related

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Brandon Sumner

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## Mike Snyder

Next Saturday the Old 78s will be performing free in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Rag monsters. Mostly fiddle and banjo, they'll have some friends along and may have a mandolin in the mix. If you're into rags, you must check 'em out. Sadly, I cannot be there.

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Sleet

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## stevenmando

I think i will just play ragtime seems like a good fit for me ,funny how old can become new again and i guess that includes me, i saved the youtube videos to my favorites much thanks.

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## JeffD

Ragtime is a real hoot to play. Once I got that rhythm under my fingers I was off and running.

You may want to check out this thread for music.

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...time-Resources

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## Cary Fagan

I'm listing to the Ragtime Skedaddlers' 'Mandolins at the Cake Walk' right now. It's magnificent.  That's what I call syncopated heaven.  Highly recommended.

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## stevenmando

I think that is what caught my attention was the rhythms and it's just fun music , i have always loved music that has some history of dance connected to it ,for me it has been eastern european music and this is a natural progression to ragtime for me, i have got to look up the history of ragtime and where it came from might be no connection don't know.

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## stevenmando

Hi just read a short history of ragtime and it is very american like jazz ,kind of like that  because its very us.

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## catmandu2

Mandolin got me into tenor banjo.  And now my favorite stuff to perfrom is Jelly Roll Morton, Joplin, and a bunch of popular rags on tenor banjo.  Great American music.  And a great teadiiton--banjo in ragtime

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## stevenmando

Well i got the music in the mail yesterday (Ragtime for Fiddle and Mandolin) and today i am starting to enter ragtime heaven, i have told myself that i will learn each and everyone of these tunes from cover to cover so i have a lot of lernun to do and that is going to be so much fun.

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## nrobinso

The new CD by the Ragtime Skedaddlers, _Mandolins at the Cake Walk_, is now available for download at http://ragtimeskedaddlers.bandcamp.com/. There's 3 free tracks, the rest are $1 each or $10 to download the whole album. For a bit more you get the physical CD with an 8-page full-color booklet with notes on the tunes, their composers, and the arrangements. Many ways to enjoy ragtime mandolins!

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## Martin Jonas

Ragtime is great fun on mandolin or tenor guitar!  Here are a few I tried a while ago:

Whistling Rufus (on resonator tenor guitar)

Whistling Rufus (on Mid-Mo mandolin)

The Entertainer (on bowlback mandolin)

Martin

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## stevenmando

Ragtime is an all around fun time with any instrument but for me its the mando but i bet it would sound great with a claranet and mando and guitar and bandolyn .

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## Beanzy

> Ragtime is an all around fun time with any instrument


 :Smile:

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## stevenmando

Great video as i say all around good time.

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## JeffD

Because ragtime tunes are often a little more intricate and "notey" than other music, there is attendancy for them to become show-off tunes, where the tune is played super fast.

For me this destroys the whole ragtime feeling. It can be an impressive demonstration of dexterity, but it loses musicality. A moderately fast tempo, so that the tune is not pokey, but not so fast that the syncopation cant be felt.

I know a group that plays Spaghetti Rag. But they play it as a gag, increasing the speed with each time and in the end it sounds like a wind up toy. Its terrible IMO. Spaghetti Rag is wonderful just played correctly, it needs no hamming up.

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Jim Nollman

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## catmandu2

And time is everything (in music)

I tend to play some of these common "raggy" fiddle tunes on the fiddle pretty quick--but with tenor banjo and guitar I have a much more "pianistic" approach and I always keep the tempo right in there...

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## Pete Summers

> Because ragtime tunes are often a little more intricate and "notey" than other music, there is attendancy for them to become show-off tunes, where the tune is played super fast.
> 
> For me this destroys the whole ragtime feeling. It can be an impressive demonstration of dexterity, but it loses musicality. A moderately fast tempo, so that the tune is not pokey, but not so fast that the syncopation cant be felt.
> 
> I know a group that plays Spaghetti Rag. But they play it as a gag, increasing the speed with each time and in the end it sounds like a wind up toy. Its terrible IMO. Spaghetti Rag is wonderful just played correctly, it needs no hamming up.


+1 for slowing most ragtime down. Played too fast, it loses the syncopated effect, a truism that Scott Joplin tried to hammer into piano players' heads with the note, "Do not play this piece fast. It is never right to play Ragtime fast" on the sheet music of each of his published rags. Pretty much in vain, though.

Some rags hold up better to higher speeds, like the more folksy tunes such as Dill Pickles, Black and White Rag, and many of the "country" rags like the Beaumont Rag, but the Joplin classical stuff is killed by show-off speed players, IMO. The exception might be the Maple Leaf Rag, which is usually played too fast by the pros, but it still holds together due to it's banjo roll type syncopation.

There is, though, a silly kind of sub-genre of ragtime called "honky tonk" in which speed and a barroom tin pan sound played at breakneck speeds is the goal, with no consideration of the subtle lilt of real ragtime. This music is usually played on rigged pianos with tacks in the hammers, and was pretty popular in the 1950s. Johnny Maddox and Crazy Otto come to mind, along with Joe "Fingers" Carr, Big Tiny Little and Joanne Castle. This stuff can also be fun, but it pales in comparsion to the bitter-sweet nostalgia of the classic rags of Joplin, Scott, Lamb and the other Missouri Valley ragtime writers, IMO.

 :Mandosmiley:

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Brandon Sumner

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## catmandu2

I think this may emanate from the fact that urbane "ragtime" evolved from dance-tempo like cakewalk, quadrille and what not.  When dealing with "dance"-derived repertoire, tempo is always crucial (IMO) and the standard tunes like MLR and all that Pete mentions--tend to be played faster perhaps for the reason they are so prevelent?  I don't know.  But, I sometimes play MLR and The Entertainer in this faster tempo too...but I also play them slower.  They sound better slower, IMO

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## SHORTY

[QUOTE=catmandu2;1055100]I think this may emanate from the fact that urbane "ragtime" evolved from dance-tempo like cakewalk, quadrille and what not.  When dealing with "dance"-derived repertoire, tempo is always crucial (IMO) and the standard tunes like MLR and all that Pete mentions--tend to be played faster perhaps for the reason they are so prevelent?  I don't know.  But, I sometimes play MLR and The Entertainer in this faster tempo too...but I also play them slower.  They sound better slower, IMO[/QUOT


    I just ordered my Ragtime book also.  I can hardly wait to turn a new page.

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## catmandu2

I think what I meant to say there was, I think maybe because of the relative "popularity"--and all that this may imply--of these well known pieces that they tend to be sped up.  They may be used as a feature piece, standard part of the repertoire, played frequently, elicit audience expectation, etc.

There's probably no dearth of literature on this in music books dealing with performance and psychology

**oops, wrong thread...was thinking about the "Timing is Everything" thread that coincidentally came up right after I saw Jeff's post above

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## nrobinso

Mandolin Cafe friends:
Here's a gift from the Ragtime Skedaddlers!

Two by Uncle Charlie, a free downloadable 2-track album, is available at:

http://ragtimeskedaddlers.bandcamp.c...-uncle-charlie

Two by Uncle Charlie was recorded live at the Nan Bostick Tribute Show at the 2012 West Coast Ragtime Festival. A stellar group of musicians played tunes by Nan, and several by her celebrated grand-uncle Charles N. Daniels, a.k.a. Neil Moret. We chose two tunes by Neil Moret as our contribution to the show: Dolores (published in1902), a melancholy number that reflects our feelings about the loss of our friend Nan, and Silver Heels (1905), a frisky and somewhat humorous number that reminds us of how much fun Nan was to be around. Nan usually referred to Charles N. Daniels as "Uncle Charlie", hence the album's title. We hope you enjoy it.

Thanks to all our families, friends, and fans for your support during 2012, and best wishes to all for 2013!

The Ragtime Skedaddlers
Nick Robinson, Dennis Pash, and Dave Krinkel

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Beanzy, 

Brandon Sumner, 

Charles E., 

Dolamon, 

Jim Garber, 

Rush Burkhardt, 

Steve Davis

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## Jim Nollman

> Because ragtime tunes are often a little more intricate and "notey" than other music, there is attendancy for them to become show-off tunes, where the tune is played super fast.
> 
> For me this destroys the whole ragtime feeling. It can be an impressive demonstration of dexterity, but it loses musicality. .


Yes, totally agree with this. I produced a CD of ragtime music a few years back. The pianist had been playing the tunes all summer at a local resort, almost entirely at a fast speed. In prep for our sessions, he'd been listening to 6 or 8 other recordings of ragtime, and so he came into my studio believing  that to join the ranks of these heroes, he needed to speed it up even more because, apparently that's what every other pianist did. 

But from the start, my client struggled with the speed. So I suggested that he slow the whole thing down to ballad speed. I told him to go study  the notorious Joshua Rivkin recording of Scott Joplin tunes, which is famously slow in a conscious effort to emphasize the melodies. 

While the melodies are uniformly gorgeous, the modulating transitions between the parts are an expression of creative genius. 

My client agreed to my suggestion. For then on, we focused on the metaphor of slowing  it all down enough so both of us could plainly hear the individual notes piling on top of one another to form melodies. 

The completed CD quickly sold out its first edition. I don't know if the pianist did a second edition. I just searched itunes for it, but was unable to find it. 

One other thing worth mentioning. I recall a few years back, there was a long thread here, a discussion of how ragtime had been clearly influenced by hornpipe melodies. For just two examples, if you listen to Garfield's Hornpipe and Minny Foster's Hornpipe, you are going to hear lots of lines used 20 or 30 years later by Scott Joplin and Eubie Blake.  :Mandosmiley:

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## Jim Garber

A big thanks to you, Nick!! I am looking fwd to more of your music.

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## Kevin Stevens

Thanks for that Nick! I was looking at your last CD just the other day and just downloaded it, this prompted me to get it done!

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## Matthew Keeler

Here's a little shameless self-promotion, but you ragtime cats might like it: http://matthewkeeler.bandcamp.com/track/plow-boy-hop

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nrobinso, 

Pete Summers

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## Matthew Keeler

Here's another'n: http://matthewkeeler.bandcamp.com/tr...ll-morgans-gal

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nrobinso, 

Pete Summers

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## stevejay

I wish there were more ragtime tef files over at mandozine. The rags there are more "country" rags like Stone's Rag, but I'd like more Joplin and Joseph Lamb etc.
Ragtime and mandolin are like bacon & eggs, it's convincing and has a history.

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## Jim Yates

Our group, *The Maple Leaf Champions Jug Band* do a medley of *Mandolin King Rag* and *Georgia Camp Meeting* that's a lot of fun to play and lays out really well on the mandolin.

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## nrobinso

Jim, That Maple Leaf Champions medley sounds great... can you post a link to any recordings?  -- Nick Robinson

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## Jim Yates

Sorry Nick, we've never recorded that.  I think the only tunes we have on the internet are three that we recorded for a demo EP to get some gigs.  They're on http://www.myspace.com/mapleleafchampionjugband, but I'm not sure if you have to be signed into myspace to listen to them.  We have our first CD and the finished copies arrived just before Christmas.  
I learned the Mandolin King Rag from a Humber River Valley Boys record and I think Ted learned Georgia Camp Meeting from an Eric Nagler record.  We have been playing this medley for years...long before the Maple Leaf Champions Jug Band came into existence.

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## Mike Bunting

Mandolin King Rag is on an album by the Even Dozen Jug Band, featuring a young David Grisman and Maria Muldaur among others. There was a tab for it in an early issue of Mandolin World News.
http://prostopleer.com/tracks/50273319BbN

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## nrobinso

The "Jazz Lives" blog features an excellent post on the Ragtime Skedaddlers at 

http://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2013/...ine-july-2013/

The blog post includes embedded YouTube videos of five tunes performed by the Skedaddlers at the Cline Wine & Dixieland Jazz Festival on July 13, 2013. Enjoy!

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## Jim Nollman

Matthew, what is that instrument on the cover of your CD? Is it a hurdy-gurdy? Can you tell us a bit about its history. Do you have any recordings with it?

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## shortymack

Dont know any ragtime on mando but I do a few on the guitar.

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## nrobinso

Dear Appreciators of Ragtime Mandolin,

This is Nick Robinson for the Ragtime Skedaddlers.

We're getting ready to release our third CD, _The Latest Popular Mandolin and Guitar Music_.

I'm writing to invite you to help me produce this CD by contributing to our fundraising campaign through Indiegogo.

Here's where to go to learn more about our new recordings, how you can help, and what's in it for you!

http://igg.me/at/skedaddlers

Thank you very much for helping me to promote ragtime mandolin and guitar music.

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## High Lonesome Valley

I grew up at the top of the Delaware Bay, where, in my great grandfather's day, a ferry would bring up blacktop string bands who were performing rag time music, along with black spirituals.  The ferrys would tour the coast of the Chesapeake up from Baltimore and then come over to the Delaware Bay on the C&D canal, stopping in Pennsville and Pennsgrove NJ, and then going on up the Delaware River to Camden NJ and Philadelphia PA.

I remember at the parties when I was a child, the old guys would tie one on, grab a broomstick as a microphone, and sing these great songs acapella, FIVE part harmonies, and it was such a wonderful musical start for me.

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