Stride and ragtime

History and character

Ragtime and stride are the two great piano styles at the origin of jazz. Ragtime was born in African American communities of the Mississippi valley (St. Louis and Missouri in particular) in the 1890s and reached its peak between 1897 and the end of the 1910s: it is a written music, published as sheet music, in march form, with a syncopated melody over a regular bass. Scott Joplin, the "King of Ragtime", published "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899) and "The Entertainer" (1902) and composed the opera "Treemonisha"; alongside him James Scott and Joseph Lamb are the main composers of "classic rag". Joplin advised against playing it fast. Ragtime came back into fashion in 1973 thanks to the film The Sting.

Stride was born in Harlem between the 1910s and the 1920s, when pianists such as James P. Johnson (the "father of stride": "Carolina Shout", 1918/1921; "Charleston", 1923), Willie "The Lion" Smith, and his student Fats Waller ("Handful of Keys", 1929; "Ain't Misbehavin'", 1929) took the left hand of ragtime and transformed it: a wider keyboard range, faster tempos, swing in place of the straight feel, richer harmonies, broken tenths, and improvisation on popular songs. In nighttime battles ("cutting contests") virtuosity and invention were put to the test. Art Tatum took stride to its harmonic and technical extreme; Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, and Earl Hines derive their piano styles from it.

The aesthetic: the piano is a complete orchestra. The left hand plays bass and alternating chords ("um-pah"), the right plays syncopated melody, ornaments, riffs, and "hot" phrases. Ragtime and stride are the foundation of boogie-woogie, of swing piano, and of the whole solo jazz piano tradition.

Scales and keys

Major (Ionian) and triads

• Formula: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 — T T S T T T S. On C: C D E F G A B.
• Characteristic note: the melody moves through triad arpeggios with chromatic neighbor tones.
• Diatonic chords: C (I), Dm (ii), Em (iii), F (IV), G7 (V7), Am (vi), Bdim (vii°).
• Use: the strains of ragtime (The Entertainer is in C major).
• Real-world example: Scott Joplin — The Entertainer; Maple Leaf Rag (in Ab major).

Major pentatonic with b3 (the "blue note" of rag and stride)

• Formula: 1 2 b3 3 5 6. On C: C D Eb E G A.
• Characteristic note: the b3 as a chromatic appoggiatura to the 3 (Eb → E): the typical gesture of the "hot" phrases of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller.

Chromatic scale and neighbor tones

Ragtime uses a great many chromatic neighbor tones (C# → D, D# → E) and chromatic lines in the left hand and inner voices. Stride adds fast chromatic scales and "runs".

Blues

• On C: C Eb F F# G Bb. Use: stride (and the boogie-woogie that derives from it) introduces blue notes and blues phrases; Fats Waller and Willie The Lion alternate them with "ragtime" lines.

Harmonic minor and tango

• On A: A B C D E F G#. Use: minor strains and habanera rhythms (Joplin — Solace, subtitled "A Mexican Serenade").

Diminished seventh arpeggios

Bdim7 = B D F Ab: used for fast passages and to connect chords (a legacy of 19th-century parlor music).

How to choose

Harmony

Harmonic function

Enriched 19th-century tonal harmony: triads and sevenths, many secondary dominants (I–VI7–II7–V7 chains), diminished passing chords, augmented sixth chords in some rags, clear cadences at the end of phrases. Stride adds ninths, tenths, thirteenths, chromatic passing chords, and substitutions (Tatum).

Ragtime form (march form)

Several themes (strains) of 16 bars divided into 4-bar phrases: typical schemes AABBACCDD, AABBCCDD, AABBCCA. The first two strains are in the tonic, the following ones (the trio) in the subdominant (e.g. Maple Leaf Rag: Ab major then Db major in the trio).

Stride form

Stride also plays its own strain forms (Carolina Shout) but mostly 32-bar songs (AABA), with varied and improvised choruses.

The "harmonic" left hand

• Bass + chord: bass (single note, octave, seventh, or tenth) on 1 and 3, chord in the middle register on 2 and 4.
• Broken tenths (James P. Johnson): C–E (a tenth) played as a fast arpeggio instead of the single note.
• Chromatic bass lines and walking in tenths in the passages.

Harmonic rhythm

1 chord per bar or two per bar; chains of dominants last 1–2 bars per chord.

Typical progressions

Rhythm and groove

Ragtime

Meter in 2/4 (or 2/2 cut time), regular and straight left hand (bass on the strong beats, chord on the weak ones), syncopated right hand: accents on offbeat sixteenth notes and "short-long-short" figures (sixteenth–eighth–sixteenth). No swing: the eighth notes are even. Moderate tempo ("march tempo", "not fast").

Stride

Meter in 4/4 with the left hand jumping between bass (1 and 3) and chord (2 and 4); swing feel (long-short eighths) in the right hand, which often sits slightly ahead of the beat while the left stays put. Tempos from medium to dizzying.

Accents

The "backbeat" of the left-hand chord on 2 and 4; the right hand accents the upbeats and creates polyrhythms (groups of 3 eighth notes over the 4/4: the "secondary rag" figure).

Microtiming

Ragtime: precision and regularity. Stride: tension between the metronomic left hand and the right hand that "pushes" or "holds back".

Drums

Principle

Ragtime and stride are above all solo piano music: the left hand is the drums (bass = kick on 1 and 3, chord = snare on 2 and 4). When arranging for band or producing a track in this style, the drums should double that principle without covering it.

Ragtime with band (dance orchestras and the "Red Back Book")

• Kick on 1 and 3 (or on the strong beats of the 2/4), choked cymbal or woodblock on the weak beats.
• March-style snare: hits on the weak beats, short rolls and flams.
• Moderate dynamics, no swing.

Stride with drums

• Brushes on the snare (sweeps on quarter notes, accents on 2 and 4).
• Soft hi-hat on 2 and 4.
• Very light feathered kick on 1 and 3 or on the quarter notes.
• Ride only in the final choruses.

Ghost notes and microtiming

No "funk" ghost notes; the groove is the swing of the pianist's right hand.

Interaction

The drums should never play in conflict with the left hand: if the left hand is in "um-pah", the kick does not play on 2/4 and the snare does not play on 1/3.

Sections

Strain/chorus: constant accompaniment; break (2 bars without accompaniment) that the pianist fills; final chorus with more dynamics.

Fills

Short press rolls or woodblock hits at the end of the strains.

Sounds

Period kit or brushes, woodblock, small cymbals.

Typical mistakes

A full, modern drum sound competing with the piano, a "rock" kick, swing in classic ragtime.

Bass

Sound

In solo piano the bass is the left hand: single note, octave, seventh, or tenth in the C1–C3 register. In an arrangement: tuba or upright bass doubling the left hand's low notes.

Notes

Alternating root and fifth (C on 1, G on 3), ascending chromatic lines in the passages (C–C#–D), broken tenths in stride, walking in tenths in the transition sections.

Relationship with the "kick"

The low note is the strong beat; the chord on the weak beat is the "snare".

Examples

The octave bass of Maple Leaf Rag; the tenths of James P. Johnson (Carolina Shout) and Fats Waller (Handful of Keys).

Harmonic instruments

• Piano (the main and almost only instrument): "um-pah" left hand (bass + chord), right-hand melody, chords in inversion, octaves, trills, and tremolos.
• Mechanical piano (player piano, piano roll): many rags were recorded on rolls (also by Joplin and James P. Johnson).
• In orchestra: banjo and guitar for the chords on the weak beats, strings and winds in ragtime dance orchestras.

Melody and vocals

Right hand

• Ragtime: syncopated melody with sixteenth–eighth–sixteenth figures, offbeat accents, arpeggios, chromatic neighbor tones, parallel thirds and sixths, octaves in the reprise.
• Stride: the song's melody varied, riffs, octaves, tremolos, chromatic and diatonic "runs", polyrhythms (groups of 3 over the 4), quotations; Tatum adds cascades of arpeggios and substitutions.

Vocals

Fats Waller sings with irony and improvises wisecracks; many stride songs are sung (Ain't Misbehavin', Honeysuckle Rose).

Effects

None.

Instruments

• Piano (upright or grand; mechanical piano)
• Banjo, guitar (in orchestra)
• Tuba or upright bass (in orchestra)
• Drums (march style for ragtime, brushes for stride)
• Winds and strings (ragtime orchestras, Red Back Book)
• Voice (stride songs)

Drum patterns

Synths and sounds

• Piano V — Upright or grand piano: For ragtime, an upright with a bit of "detune" (light honky-tonk) and room ambience; for stride, a bright grand with wide dynamics; for player piano, constant velocity and rigid quantization.

Song structure

Ragtime (march form)

• Intro (4 bars).
• A (16) A – B (16) B – A (16) – Trio C (16) C (on the IV) – D (16) D (or return of A).
• Length 2:30–4:00. Each strain has 4 phrases of 4 bars (antecedent–consequent).

Stride

• Intro (4–8).
• Chorus 1: the song's theme (32, AABA) stated.
• Choruses 2–4: variations, improvisations, "shouts" with octaves and tremolos.
• Final chorus with coda (tag, virtuosic cadenza).
• Length 2:30–4:00.

Arrangement (solo piano)

Density grows with each chorus: theme with a simple stride left hand, then broken tenths and riffs in the right hand, then octaves and tremolos; ballads with a freely played introduction (Tatum, Waller) before entering in tempo.

Mixing and mastering

Sonic goal

Natural, full solo piano: defined left-hand bass notes, unmuddy middle chords, clear melody, room or small-hall ambience. Loudness −18/−14 LUFS (solo piano, very dynamic), PLR 14–20 dB.

Piano (recording and EQ)

• Mics: spaced pair or ORTF at 30–60 cm from the strings in an open grand (or behind/above an upright); optionally an ambient pair at 2–3 m.
• EQ: HP 30–40 Hz; −2/−3 dB at 200–350 Hz if the left-hand chords get muddy; +1/+2 dB at 2–4 kHz for the melody's attack; air 10–12 kHz in moderation.
• Compression: none or 1–2 dB slow opto (ratio 1.5:1–2:1, attack 30 ms, release 300 ms) to even out the left hand; ragtime also lives on dynamics.
• Pan: moderate stereo (60–80%), consistent with the position of the pianist or the audience.

Vocals (sung stride)

HP 80 Hz; 200–300 Hz −2 dB; 3 kHz +2 dB; compression 3–4 dB; room/plate 1–1.5 s; center.

Band (if present)

Brushes and snare: HP 100 Hz, 3–6 kHz sweep; upright bass or tuba: HP 35 Hz, −3 dB at 220 Hz; banjo: −2 dB at 2–3 kHz. Everything behind the piano.

FX

Room or small hall 0.9–1.6 s, pre-delay 10–20 ms; return HP 200 Hz. For a "piano roll" or 78 rpm color: filtered parallel bus (HP 200 Hz, LP 5 kHz) at 10–20%, possibly very low surface noise.

Buses and groups

If there is a band: band bus with 1 dB of glue.

Sidechain

Never.

Master

Chain: minimal EQ – limiter on peaks (−1 dBTP). Target −16/−14 LUFS integrated for solo piano; don't compress: the accents of the syncopation and the dynamics between strains are the character of the genre.

Common mistakes

Muddy left hand at 150–300 Hz, compression that flattens the syncopation, cathedral reverb, a sampled piano with no velocity variation, swing quantization on classic ragtime.

Reference tracks for mixing

Joshua Rifkin — Piano Rags by Scott Joplin (1970, the reference recording of the revival); Dick Hyman — recordings of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller; Art Tatum — solo piano (Pablo, 1950s).

Reference listening

• Scott Joplin — Maple Leaf Rag (1899)
• Scott Joplin — The Entertainer (1902)
• James Scott — Grace and Beauty (1909)
• Joseph Lamb — American Beauty Rag (1913)
• James P. Johnson — Carolina Shout (1921)
• James P. Johnson — Charleston (1923)
• Fats Waller — Handful of Keys (1929)
• Fats Waller — Ain't Misbehavin' (1929)
• Willie "The Lion" Smith — Echoes of Spring (1939)
• Art Tatum — Tiger Rag (1932)