Customer Reviews

Ragtime Gems: Original Sheet Music for 25 Ragtime Classics (Dover Music for Piano)

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The first follow up to the three larger Dover editions of collected ragtime, this is the one that really smokes, and has rags that simply will not be ignored. Not only are three Joplin greats part of the package, but the well known Dill Pickles, Wild Cherries, Temptation Rag, the incomparable Entertainer's Rag, and Scott's masterpiece, Grace and Beauty. You can find many of them on my site as well, if you want to hear them first. The three Joplin pieces alone would run in the hundreds of dollars in today's thriving collectible sheet music market. So if you can deal with the covers not printed in color, you'll be duly entertained, and hopefully entertaining, when perusing the contents of this book that you should be buying instead of just reading this rambling review!!!

If you enjoy playing Ragtime music and can play any of Scott Joplin's Rags, then you should enjoy these. The selections are all within the playing ability of the moderately advanced performer and can be easily mastered. David Jasen did a great job selecting works that had not been included in other books. He added 24 new Rags to my collection of over 400 Rags in nine books, the only duplication being "Grace and Beauty" by James Scott. The three Rags by Joplin did not appear in "Scott Joplin Collected Piano Works" because the copyright holder would not allow it. Thank goodness that has changed.

This is a good publication for some lesser-known rags that can othewise be very difficult to find. Among the more well-known pieces are SJ's Fig Leaf Rag, Rose Leaf Rag and Searchlight Rag and James Scott's Grace and Beauty. There are, however, only a few challenges in this book, and they mainly come from my personal favourite, The Entertainer's Rag. This book is small, but well worth your money.