Description
A cover showing four sporting scenes — horse racing, baseball, football and yachting — explains the title, which refers to betting on them. Joplin published the rag himself in 1901, subtitled "A Rag Time Two Step," and it was sold as accompaniment for the social dancing of the day. It was among the Joplin pieces used in the 1973 film The Sting.
Four strains are laid out, opening in A-flat major and moving in the second half to the subdominant, D-flat major. The melody alternates between figures that run up the scale and figures that skip, giving the rag a broader, more relaxed manner than most. At around five minutes it is one of his longer pieces.
For the whole length of this intermediate rag the left hand alternates bass and chord, so settling how the arm moves early is what makes it last. Keep the wrist loose and learn the move as a round trip — drop to the bass, return to the chord. The right hand's syncopation only tells when the left is exact.
Ragtime pieces centered on Scott Joplin's syncopated rhythms — a lively American genre that helped pave the way for jazz.
Browse all songs in Ragtime →Sheet Music
Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Scott Joplin (1868-1917)
Scott Joplin was an African American composer born in Texas, known as the "King of Ragtime." Blending syncopated, buoyant rhythms with sophisticated harmony, he brought the genre to national prominence with the enormous success of "Maple Leaf Rag." This site includes 18 of his works, such as "The Entertainer" and "Elite Syncopations."
View all works by Joplin →