5 Finger Joplin Rags

Of Scott Joplin James Scott and Joseph Lamb-The great ragtime pieces of the early 20th century were written mostly for Piano but many translate superbly for the Guitar and David Laibman will show you how.Here's a mystery: if the great ragtime pieces of the early 20th century were not written for Guitar and if they weren't player on the Guitar at all (until some of us started doing so half a century ago) then why do they work so will on Guitar?Well thumb vs. three fingers on the right hand (we'll leave out thepinky for now) creates that subtle antagonism between steady bass and syncopated melody - the 'twinkle in the eye' of Ragtime. There is a theory that the original borrowing actually went in the other directed from three-finger Banjo to Piano. Who knows? But I'm finding that the 'educated thumb' is only one neat thing about ragtime Guitar. Classic rags are very expressive with moods and tempers hills and valley. You can capture some of this with left-hand notes (slides hammer-ons pull-offs) with right-hand brushes rolls nail strokes with clever use of open strings and natural harmonics. This works. It is it's own story - not an imitation of a Piano or of a dixieland or jazz band. It is simply - ragtime Guitar.In these lessons I have tried for the most part to meet two goals. First to create versions of some of the most beautiful classical rags that 'lay down' well on Guitar so when you play them you are working with the instrument not fighting it. I have tried to pitch and arrange the pieces so that a lot of the action is in first position rather than high up on the neck and to keep left hand gymnastics to a minimum. Second I didn't want these arrangements to sound like 'student' arrangements too elementary to be believable. It is all about striking a balance. I am generally pleased with the result and I hope

15 Classic Rags Arranged for Solo Ukulele-15 of the most popular ragtime Piano pieces for the Ukulele are arranged by Fred Sokolow in this collection featuring music notation tablature and online audio demonstration tracks. Each rag has several sections so there's a wealth of music here. Learning these rags will expand your Ukulele horizons and provide hours of musical fun! Selections include: Dill Pickles (Charles Johnson) • The Entertainer (Scott Joplin) • Maple Leaf Rag (Scott Joplin) • Pegasus (James Scott) • Slippery Elm Rag (Clarence Woods) • Smoky Mokes (Abe Holzmann) • Yankee Land (Max Hoffman) • and more.

David Laibman is regarded as one of the founders of modern fingerstyle classic ragtime guitar. He began working out old-timey and classical rags in the 1960s; recorded The New Ragtime Guitar with Eric Shoenberg (Folkways 1970) and Classical Ragtime Guitar (Rounder 1980) both available on CD. In this DVD David performs a wide variety of his compositions and arrangements of rags by Scott Joplin James Scott and Joseph Lamb. He talks about his musical influences arranging and working out fingerings for these complex pieces and how in recent times he has begun writing ragtime compositions for guitar.