Thank you for joining me in learning about this important part of United States music history. Ragtime is a music created by the unique, often tragic conditions in United States culture in the mid-to-late 1800s. Enslaved Africans and their descendants took their syncopated rhythmic language and combined it with the forms and harmonic conventions of marching band music brought to the Americas from Europe. From these roots, Ragtime, which was named for the way the music sounded “ragged” to those unfamiliar with accented off-beat patterns, was born.

Here is a collection of articles, books, scholars, videos, and other resources I have used in my research on this vital music.

Videos

Terry Waldo Discusses Ragtime

What is Ragtime? Ragtime Explained in 2 minutes

What is Boogie Woogie? Boogie Woogie Explained in 2 minutes

The Incredible Story of America’s First Pop Star

Scott Joplin – Living History

How to play Scott Joplin’s “School of Ragtime”

Articles

Scott Joplin’s ragtime gets its dues – The Guardian

100 Years of the Maple Leaf Rag – Minnesota Public Radio

Ragtime – Library of Congress

History of Minstrelsy: Ragtime and the “Coon song” – USF Libraries

Joplin’s Ragtime Style Lives on in Print and Song – NPR

The Ragtime Revival – Commentary Magazine

The Ragtime Revival – A Belated Ode to Composer Scott – The New York Times

There Was Ragtime Before ‘The Sting’ – The Washington Post

Books

Scott Joplin: Complete Piano Works – New York Public Library

Early Jazz – Gunther Schuller

Publications

The Syncopated Times

Organizations

Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival

Scholars

Terry Waldo

Rudi Blesh

Harriet Janis

Edward A. Berlin

Bill Edwards

Ragtime Project Posts

Jelly Roll Morton: Bridging Ragtime and Jazz Traditions – 7/27

Stop-time Across American Art Forms – 7/22

Waltz into the Week with Scott Joplin – 7/20

Ragtime and Stride – Two American Piano Playing Styles – 7/13

Women in Ragtime – 7/6

A Week of Ragtime – 7/4

OUT NOW: Rag in Fourths – 7/3

That Epidemic Rag – 7/1

The Ragtime Revival of the 1970s – 6/27

Ragtime Project Update – 6/22

Ragtime’s Complicated Relationship to Racism in the United States – 6/20

5 Scott Joplin Piano Pieces to Know – 6/17

Announcing My Next Project – 6/16

Note: My Patreon members receive early access to my Ragtime Project blog posts, which is the reason some of these posts may be temporarily password protected.