Pine Apple Rag

Scott Joplin · Level 6 (Expert) · jazz and blues · Piano

A 1908 rag published by Seminary Music, with a popular-song flavour. Marvin Hamlisch used it in the score of The Sting (1973). B♭ major, 2/4, 148 bars (about 3 minutes), complete score.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• As Joplin wrote: “it is never right to play ragtime fast”. Keep the left hand perfectly steady (bass, then chord) and place the right-hand syncopations precisely. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment. Triplets and other tuplets must be perfectly even: count them aloud with the metronome. The left hand makes wide leaps: look at the landing note in advance and move early, without rushing the rhythm.

More pieces by Scott Joplin

• Elite Syncopations
• Something Doing
• The Strenuous Life
• Wall Street Rag
• The Entertainer
• Search-Light Rag
• Peacherine Rag
• Original Rags

Source : Mutopia Project · Public Domain