by Lasse Johansson

Just back after some lovely summer months that included guitar festivals in Stamford, England and Skarrildshus, Denmark as well as my own seminar in Köveskal, Hungary. Meeting with other teachers and students this summer showed me once more how much interest and enthusiasm there is out there for ragtime guitar. In fact, many fingerstyle guitarists of today have been adding classical ragtime tunes to their repertoire.

Take “Maple Leaf Rag” for instance, the second ragtime composition of Scott Joplin to be published and definitely the most successful. In Denmark the audience was treated to five different versions of this classic: I played my version and then came Duck Baker, Dave Laibman, Paul Banks and Nick Katzman. It became a running joke, announcing yet another “Maple Leaf Rag” from the stage. Oddly enough our versions were all in different keys, which goes to prove that finding a suitable key is one of the most difficult tasks when it comes to transposing a piano piece to the guitar. “Maple Leaf Rag” was composed in the key of Ab, a key to stay away from when playing fingerstyle guitar. My version is in A, Dave’s in D, Duck’s in C. Paul Banks played the first section only as an interlude to another piece and he was in he key of G. Nick Katzman played rev. Gary Davis’ version, “Make Believe Stunt”, in the key of A.

“Maple Leaf Rag” was first published in 1899, only two years after ragtime first came out in print. In 1897 there was almost a race between different publishers to be the first to publish a ragtime piece. As it turned out the winner was W.H. Krell’s “Mississippi Rag” that came out in January of that year. Later that year the first rag written by an African American composer was released and that is the rag that I have arranged for you, Tom Turpin’s “Harlem Rag”, published in December 1897.

“Harlem Rag” was first published by De Young of St. Louis in an arrangement by D.S. De Lisle. The tune was later sold to Stern of New York, who printed two slightly different versions, one with an arrangement by William H. Tyers. Having different versions in the original sheet music gives us the opportunity to choose the one we think best suits the guitar.

Note that in the arrangement in this article, I have chosen not to repeat sections three and four. In the original score these sections both come in two versions, the second being somewhat more complex. If you study the tablature you’ll find that I have had to work a bit up the neck, even as far as the 15th fret for a short note. But while I’m up there I always try to use open strings, in the bass or the melody, as often as it is musically and technically possible. I do this as it is important to me to make an arrangement that isn’t technically too hard to play.

In section three you will at times have a ‘bass melody’ alongside the ‘chordal melody’ on the treble strings. Bass runs together with the melody are a typical ragtime feature. This sometimes sounds like two melodies happening at the same time. In measure 42 there are some harmonics on frets 12 and 7.

In the last section you’ll have the same harmonics in measures 54 and 62. I have written out the chords and advise you to try to hold down as much of the chord as possible even if you don’t play all of the notes. This is common practice in this style, the reason being that you’ll get a fuller sound out of the guitar if as many strings as possible vibrate, which is what happens when you fret more strings than the ones you play. Another reason is that mistakes won’t be as noticeable: if you hit the wrong string it will still sound okay because it’ll just be another note in the chord.

Good Luck!

Harlem Rag – 2 – PDF version
Harlem Rag – 2 – TEF version

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