The Entertainer and Maple Leaf Rag for kids: ragtime explained

“The Entertainer” and the “Maple Leaf Rag” are two piano pieces by the American composer Scott Joplin. Both are rags. In a rag, the left hand keeps a steady beat while the right hand plays a tune that lands off the beat. “The Entertainer” is the better first listen for a child. The “Maple Leaf Rag” is faster and harder to play.

Quick facts

	Maple Leaf Rag	The Entertainer
Composer	Scott Joplin	Scott Joplin
Printed	1899	1902
Length	about 3 minutes	about 4 minutes
Played by	one piano	one piano
Beat	two beats in a bar	two beats in a bar
Tunes	four	four

Joplin lived from about 1868 to 1917. People called him the King of Ragtime.

What ragtime is

Ragtime is a style of piano music that grew up among Black musicians in the American Midwest in the 1890s. The name comes from “ragged time.”

The 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. This comes from marches.

The right hand plays against the beat. Its notes land between the left hand’s steps. This is called syncopation.

Read what is syncopation?

Four tunes in a row

A rag is built the way a march is built. It has several tunes, and each one is played twice. Both of these rags have four tunes, in this order:

1. The first tune, twice
2. The second tune, twice
3. The first tune, once more
4. The third tune, twice
5. The fourth tune, twice

Hold up a finger each time a new tune starts.

The Maple Leaf Rag

Joplin lived for a time in Sedalia, Missouri, where he played the piano at a club called the Maple Leaf. In 1899, a publisher in town printed his rag. The contract paid Joplin one cent for every copy sold.

The piece sold in huge numbers over the years and gave him a steady income.

What to listen for. The first tune starts with jumpy chords and then ripples up the keyboard. The left hand leaps far and fast. The third tune moves to a new key.

The Entertainer

Joplin printed “The Entertainer” three years later, after he had moved to St. Louis. He dedicated it to a man named James Brown and his mandolin club.

What to listen for.

Part	What happens
Introduction	Both hands step down the keys together
First tune	The famous one. The left hand starts its “low, high, low, high.”
Second tune	A new tune. The repeat is played higher up the keyboard.
First tune again	Once, as a reminder
Third tune	A new tune in a new key
Fourth tune	Back to the first key, for a strong finish

Some children know the first tune from ice cream trucks.

Do not play this piece fast

Joplin wanted his music treated with respect. He printed a warning on some of his scores that told pianists not to play the piece fast. “The Entertainer” is marked “not fast.”

Some pianists race through both rags all the same. Try two recordings, one fast and one slow.

Forgotten and found

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

In the 1970s, pianists began to record his 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. In 1976, Joplin was given a special Pulitzer Prize.

Things to do together

Two jobs. 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.

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

Count the tunes. Hold up one, two, three, or four fingers for the tune you hear. Make a fist when the first tune comes back.

Fast or slow. Play a fast recording and a slow one. Ask which one Joplin would have liked.

Try the left hand. At a piano, play any low key with your left little finger, and then any three keys higher up. Go back and forth: low, high, low, high.

March or dance. March to “The Entertainer.” Then dance to it. Ask which fits better.

Questions to ask

• Which hand has the harder job?
• Does the music sound like a march, a dance, or both?
• Why did Joplin ask pianists not to play fast?
• Which of the four tunes did you like most?

Words to know

• Ragtime: piano music with a steady left hand and an off-beat right hand
• Rag: one piece of ragtime
• Syncopation: strong notes that land off the beat
• March: music for walking in step, with several tunes in a row

Print and play

Use a listening journal page for each rag. Test your ear with the rhythm match game. Read Scott Joplin for kids, Black composers for kids, and The Stars and Stripes Forever, a march built the same way.