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This is an approximation of the great piano rag 'The Entertainer' by Scott Joplin. I guess we've all heard it at some time or other... I did this from memory, so it won't be exact, but like all the lessons here, it's a good one to limber those fingers up on. It's quite challenging to play as it turns out ... another one of those tunes with a wide range of intervals, another one that I had to do a bit of octave switching to keep it fairly easy.
Guess what? It's in the key of G!
This one sticks pretty much to the related chords, firmly anchored to the I-IV-V chords, as always. I'm nor sure how accurate my version is compared to the real thing, but my memory bank spat out a 'majorized ii' chord, which I then twisted into an A7sus2 flavor; there's also a D6 thrown in there, and an Em/A, which could have a couple other names ascribed to it.
As always, the arrangement is a sum of its parts: bass line, melody line and filling out where possible, chord fragments. This tune uses quite a few semitone runs in the melody line, which are always fun to play. The lead up to the end is interesting: The bass line keeps changing the flavor of the repetitive top melody ... very cool.
Here's the chord progression:
| G - G/B - | C - G/B - | Em/A - D6 - | G - - - |
| G - G/B - | C - G/B - | A7sus4 - - - | D - - - |
| G - G/B - | C - G/B - | Em/A - D6 - | G - - - |
| G - G/B - | C - A7/C# - | G/D - A7/C# D | G - - - |
I may have named them slightly differently in the movie. There are so many ways of naming groups of notes, especially when they become slash chords, that I sometimes use different ones. This is not meant to confuse you, but more to point out that chord names are sometimes interchangeable. I'm sure a theory expert would pull me up quick smart, however!
There is a lot of finger contorting in this arrangement. I tried several ways to make it work, this seemed to be the most straight forward, but you will see that it's no piece of cake. There is a big jump up the neck that requires a single note run-up with the pinkie (something I hate) and then a quick shift to a chord shape. It took me a while to get it to flow smoothly. Concentrated, focused effort got me there in the end, so stick with it.
There's a nice bit in the middle where what sounds like a fast run of single notes is actually an arpeggiate chord shape, that A7sus4/C# ... all you need to do is grab that shape and let the picking fingers take care of the rest.
There's not much else to report really ... musically there's not all that much to it; physically however, making all the moves and keeping it musical is the challenge.
Have fun!
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