How Did Scott Joplin Promote Ragtime Music

Ragtime Music and Scott Joplin

Ragtime has its roots in the African-American music, and it was popular in the 1890s to the early 1900s. Moreover, through published compositions, ragtime artists managed to spread the music throughout America (Berlin 130). Consequently, the popularity of ragtime music led to an increase in the demand for pianos. The piano was the primary instrument used to produce ragtime music compositions. Nonetheless, one of the pioneers of the ragtime music was Scott Joplin. In fact, the contributions of Scott Joplin in promoting ragtime music are immense, that it is difficult to talk about ragtime without mentioning his name (Stephens 13). Thus, Scott Joplin is a famous ragtime musician who helped to popularize the music in the 1890s to the early 1900s.

For instance, “Maple Leaf Rag” is a famous composition by Scott Joplin that

One of the publications written by Joplin was by the title, The School of Ragtime. Honestly, this was a publication that was effective in teaching amateur ragtime artists how to use the piano. Besides, this publication contained six piano lessons, and the writing aimed to explain how to play the syncopated melody using their right hands accurately (Odekerken, et al. 47). Also, Joplin taught amateur artists how to create sophisticated bass patterns and harmonic ideas in their ragtime music compositions through his writings. The creation of complex bass patterns is one of the requirements of producing a quality ragtime music (Berlin 140). Undeniably, education is one of the methods of imparting skills to students. The process of learning can take place through writing books so that students can read. In this regard, Scott Joplin used written publications to impart ragtime musical skills to amateur artists. So, he helped to promote the popularity of ragtime