Scott Joplin for kids: his life, his music, and what to play first

Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist who lived from about 1868 to 1917. People called him the King of Ragtime. He wrote “The Entertainer” and the “Maple Leaf Rag,” two piano pieces that people still know more than a century later. The best first piece for a child is “The Entertainer.”

Quick facts

• Born: about 1868, in northeast Texas
• Died: 1917, in New York City
• Era: Modern
• Played: piano
• Known for: the “Maple Leaf Rag,” “The Entertainer,” and the opera Treemonisha

The life in short

Joplin grew up in Texarkana, a town on the border of Texas and Arkansas. His father had been enslaved, and his mother was born free. Both parents made music at home.

His mother cleaned houses, and she arranged for Scott to practice on the pianos in the homes where she worked. A German-born music teacher in town, Julius Weiss, heard the boy and gave him free lessons. Weiss taught him to read music and introduced him to European classical music.

As a young man, Joplin traveled and played the piano wherever he could find work. He settled for a time in Sedalia, Missouri, where he studied music at a college for Black students and played at a club called the Maple Leaf.

In 1899, a publisher printed his “Maple Leaf Rag.” Joplin’s contract paid him one cent for every copy sold. Over the years, the piece sold in huge numbers and gave him a steady income.

He moved to St. Louis and then to New York. He wrote more than 40 rags.

His great dream was an opera. He wrote Treemonisha, the story of a young Black woman whose education lets her lead her community. He could not find anyone to stage it. He paid for one run-through himself, with only a piano.

Joplin died in 1917. Ragtime faded soon after, and his name was nearly forgotten for 50 years.

What ragtime sounds like

In a rag, the pianist’s two hands do two different jobs.

The left hand keeps a steady beat. It jumps between a low note and a chord: low, high, low, high.

The right hand plays against the beat. Its notes land a little early or a little late, between the left hand’s steps. This is called syncopation, and it gives ragtime its bounce.

Joplin wanted his music treated with respect. He printed a warning on his scores: do not play this piece fast.

Four pieces to play first

“The Entertainer.” The opening tune steps down the keys, then the left hand starts its steady march. Many children know it from ice cream trucks.

“Maple Leaf Rag.” Faster and harder, with a leaping left hand. It was the rag every pianist of the day wanted to play.

“Solace.” A slow, gentle piece with a swaying rhythm borrowed from Mexican and Cuban dances.

“The Easy Winners.” A bright, strutting rag from 1901.

Things to do together

Two jobs. Play “The Entertainer.” Pat your knees to the left hand’s steady beat. Then try to clap the right hand’s tune. Notice how they do not line up.

Slow it down. Play two recordings of the “Maple Leaf Rag,” one fast and one slow. Ask which one Joplin would have liked.

Walk the bass. Step left, right, left, right to the low and high notes of the left hand.

Spot the syncopation. Say “Scott JOP-lin wrote RAG-time” with a steady foot tap. Then shift a word so it lands between taps.

The comeback

In the 1970s, pianists began to record Joplin’s rags again. In 1973, a film called The Sting used “The Entertainer,” and the piece became a hit record more than 70 years after he wrote it. Treemonisha was staged in full in 1972. In 1976, Joplin was given a special Pulitzer Prize, 59 years after his death.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for Joplin. Read about more Black composers in Black composers for kids: ten to know. For how his instrument works, see piano for kids.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.