Ragtime Gospel Music

As a child, I loved to play ragtime piano music. As a matter of fact, in my Junior high school years, I quit taking piano lessons for a time because I didn’t want to practice anything else except ragtime piano pieces. I learned and memorized several of the great works by Scott Joplin, especially The Entertainer and the Maple Leaf Rag, and played through most every other piece written by Joplin, and other great ragtime writers. I soon learned that I couldn’t get very far without a teacher, as I was still in the early stages of maturity as a musician. My time spent playing ragtime was certainly not wasted, as I later began to discover ways to infuse my ragtime influence into a fresh style of playing the hymns and gospel songs I was learning in church. These two books below represent an example of this infusion. The first on the left, “Ragtime Gospel Hymns,” was published in 2008 and was arranged for the advanced level pianist. They are comparable to the difficulty of most any Joplin work, and require considerable practice to perform. The other one, “Ragtime Gospel Classics,” was published later in 2015 as second volume to the former one, however, the level of difficulty is lessened down to about a late intermediate student. They do not require a large hand as the other volume, and utilizes few octaves and large chords. Both are available from Amazon, and other suppliers, or directly from me as well.