Rag, Doing the Rag

Schermerberger · #1 January 27th, 2006

I've been on the Bottleneck guitar forum and was enjoying another good guitar player "Houndog Fraser" playing slide over some rag riffs and you know how enquiring minds want to know are. I wasn't sure whether I should ask about ragtime there or not, perhaps due to the nature of it being for slide play predominantly. So here it is. Hopefully I'm not repeating another thread.

Is there a typical ragtime song/chord form? Something like the twelve bar blues? Or perhaps, what are the standard cliche' ragtime chord progressions?

http://www.bottleneckguitar.com/forum/

thanks in advance for the input

allthumbs · #2 January 27th, 2006

This lesson should answer some of your questions.
Ragtime Pickin'

Schermerberger · #3 January 29th, 2006

Thanks Allthumbs,
I need to revisit it. This is the lesson I looked at first when got hooked up to the Kirk L guitar web ring. I didn't at that time look at the Roman Numeric description, only the tab and video. I'll review it. I'm sure that it is a good start. Nice to hear from you....

Schermerberger · #4 January 8th, 2007

After some time, practice, brain racking and review of the lesson posted above and hours on the internet, being as dense as I am and all, I'm still hoping someone could enlighten me with more info. I think I understand that in this genre the minors are majorized, but what else. Playing other rag songs can get you there but I'm not seeing what makes rag ..well....rag. Can anyone add something? I'll take all I can get. What make a chord progression ragtime? Is it merely the syncopating base thump with majorized seventh minors?

Fretsource · #5 January 9th, 2007

There's an interesting article in Wipedia that gives quite a lot of information about the style. It doesn't mention about the majorised minor 7ths but it says the defining characteristic is in the rhythm - The thumping bass in 2/4 or 4/4 time with syncopated melody notes above.
Wikipedia - Ragtime article

Justapicker · #6 January 9th, 2007

The name "rag" came from the "raggedy" bass lines in the music. In traditional rags the bass line is less "thump-thump" than you'll find in so many guitar rags, it's more "broken" up, often falling on off beats. There are common progressions that give it a specific flavor, the III-VI-ii-V is probably the most recognizable. Trying to boil it all down to simple definitions is difficult, it's like trying to define jazz, classical, blues or rock in a short paragraph. It's a wide genre/style that incorporates many elements.