Are there any good books for accordion arrangements of ragtime pieces? The only one I could find is "Ragtime Favorites for Accordion" by Helene Criscio, which according to the reviews I read are simplified/shortened arrangements. I was looking for a collection of arrangements that would be more close to the original compositions.
Ragtime book recommendations
- Thread starter ganelon
- Start date
noelekal
The Home For Wayward Accordions
Ooo...I like rags on the accordion! I like hearing them. I like playing them.
I am not familiar with any accordion ragtime books. Wish I was. I only have old accordion sheet music renditions of rags: Maple Leaf Rag, 12th Street Rag, Waiting On the Robert E. Lee, Tiger Rag and a few more. Only thing is, old sheet music can be fragile.
I have fun with Ebay searches for tunes I think I need. Condition of pages may not be that great, but I'm not too hard on my music. I still have my simple Oahu accordion sheet music arrangement of "12th Street Rag" from childhood music lessons 60 years ago. It's tattered, yet still serviceable. My playing rendition doesn't bear much resemblance to that simple score at this point, what with incorporating elements from my grandmother's version she played on piano prior to World War I, and elements I gleaned of a 1948 recording of "12th Street Rag" composer Euday Bowman's own piano interpretation of the tune that my dad had when I was a kid, along with my own ideas for embellishment.
Even simple arrangements can get you there with ragtime on the accordion. Just modify them. Throw in some jumpin' syncopation, some sassy enhanced chords for right hand, some tasteful bass runs for the left hand, mix well at a lively tempo and enjoy.
Finding old recordings of accordion renditions (or even piano renditions) on YouTube to listen to can give you ideas on how to devise your own arrangements.
There exists a very satisfying Anthony Galla-Rini accordion sheet music arrangement of "Waiting On the Robert E. Lee" out there to be occasionally found in Ebay-land that will suit very well as is, or jazz it up as the whim strikes you.
Here, beginning at 2:22 is the composer Euday Bowman playing his own piece. He was old and sick, living with his sister in Fort Worth, Texas by then. Was said to have made this recording to help with his living expenses. You can hear the odd flub in his playing of it, but it is still glorious. He died not long after.
My dad had this record, one of the big thick bakelite (?) 78 rpm records. I played it endlessly on an ancient Philco player in a fancy wood grain tabletop cabinet that also has an AM radio ... and a 10 pound tone arm with a needle that could have doubled as a rod bayonet for an early US Springfield Model 1903 rifle! One day I had the Philco set up in the middle of the bedroom floor with the 1940s records all around. Wouldn't you know it; I stepped on "12th Street Rag" and broke about 3/4-inch off the edge. So, I was reduced to starting the needle just past the break and playing the rest.
By the 1970s the Philco had died, but I kept the broken "12 Street Rag" record under my bed with the others until I married and moved out in 1978, at which time my mother (probably gleefully) threw them out.
Even more personal "12th Street Rag" lore than you ever wanted to know.
My grandmother said she obtained the piano sheet music for "12th Street Rag" when she was a 16 year old girl and my great grandmother didn't approve of her playing the tune. This would have been in 1914.
Fast forward to the early 1960s and I was a knothead kid learning the accordion. Was given the Oahu publication of the accordion sheet music to "12th Street Rag." My grandmother told me that she loved the tune and used to play it as well as other rags.
She'd been a piano teacher for many years, but that was years before I was born. Her Cable Company, Chicago, Illinois upright piano stood in their den. We grandkids banged on it and begged her to play it for us, but she always demurred. By then she had cruel osteo-arthritis, her fingers both crooked and with swollen knuckles. Additionally she suffered from palsy and her hands shook.
I begged and begged for her to play "12th Street Rag" for me, but she always said she no longer could. One day though, I was at her house with no other grandkids around and again pleaded to hear her play "12th Street Rag" for me. I was almost startled when she sat down on the piano's bench and whipped out "12th Street Rag" pretty as you please. Why she sounded near exactly as Bowman's playing style on the recording! She only missed on the odd note as well.
Upon reflection in more recent times I have to wonder if she selflessly practiced up on the piece just to spring it on me. I recall that at the time I immediately went home and began incorporating some her rendition into my playing of the piece, a bad infraction of my accordion teacher's rule to never be tempted to play by ear.
Now, all these years later I play "12th Street Rag" from memory, with embellishments last thing before closing the instrument in its case, no matter if I'm playing for practice, for fun, or to entertain others. I cannot now play it though without a catch coming up in my throat, if not a tear in my eye, reminiscing about that day with my little 5' 2" grandmother belting out "12th Street Rag" for me on her old Cable upright. She was so much more than a single musical performance to we grandkids, the rest of her family, and to any soul who came in contact with her.
I also ruefully reflect on the pain from arthritis just now beginning to make its presence felt in my right hand and fingers as I wade into the massed triplets in that third section, for you see, I am the same age now that she was in 1965-1966 when she played for me.
I am not familiar with any accordion ragtime books. Wish I was. I only have old accordion sheet music renditions of rags: Maple Leaf Rag, 12th Street Rag, Waiting On the Robert E. Lee, Tiger Rag and a few more. Only thing is, old sheet music can be fragile.
I have fun with Ebay searches for tunes I think I need. Condition of pages may not be that great, but I'm not too hard on my music. I still have my simple Oahu accordion sheet music arrangement of "12th Street Rag" from childhood music lessons 60 years ago. It's tattered, yet still serviceable. My playing rendition doesn't bear much resemblance to that simple score at this point, what with incorporating elements from my grandmother's version she played on piano prior to World War I, and elements I gleaned of a 1948 recording of "12th Street Rag" composer Euday Bowman's own piano interpretation of the tune that my dad had when I was a kid, along with my own ideas for embellishment.
Even simple arrangements can get you there with ragtime on the accordion. Just modify them. Throw in some jumpin' syncopation, some sassy enhanced chords for right hand, some tasteful bass runs for the left hand, mix well at a lively tempo and enjoy.
Finding old recordings of accordion renditions (or even piano renditions) on YouTube to listen to can give you ideas on how to devise your own arrangements.
There exists a very satisfying Anthony Galla-Rini accordion sheet music arrangement of "Waiting On the Robert E. Lee" out there to be occasionally found in Ebay-land that will suit very well as is, or jazz it up as the whim strikes you.
Here, beginning at 2:22 is the composer Euday Bowman playing his own piece. He was old and sick, living with his sister in Fort Worth, Texas by then. Was said to have made this recording to help with his living expenses. You can hear the odd flub in his playing of it, but it is still glorious. He died not long after.
My dad had this record, one of the big thick bakelite (?) 78 rpm records. I played it endlessly on an ancient Philco player in a fancy wood grain tabletop cabinet that also has an AM radio ... and a 10 pound tone arm with a needle that could have doubled as a rod bayonet for an early US Springfield Model 1903 rifle! One day I had the Philco set up in the middle of the bedroom floor with the 1940s records all around. Wouldn't you know it; I stepped on "12th Street Rag" and broke about 3/4-inch off the edge. So, I was reduced to starting the needle just past the break and playing the rest.
By the 1970s the Philco had died, but I kept the broken "12 Street Rag" record under my bed with the others until I married and moved out in 1978, at which time my mother (probably gleefully) threw them out.
Even more personal "12th Street Rag" lore than you ever wanted to know.
My grandmother said she obtained the piano sheet music for "12th Street Rag" when she was a 16 year old girl and my great grandmother didn't approve of her playing the tune. This would have been in 1914.
Fast forward to the early 1960s and I was a knothead kid learning the accordion. Was given the Oahu publication of the accordion sheet music to "12th Street Rag." My grandmother told me that she loved the tune and used to play it as well as other rags.
She'd been a piano teacher for many years, but that was years before I was born. Her Cable Company, Chicago, Illinois upright piano stood in their den. We grandkids banged on it and begged her to play it for us, but she always demurred. By then she had cruel osteo-arthritis, her fingers both crooked and with swollen knuckles. Additionally she suffered from palsy and her hands shook.
I begged and begged for her to play "12th Street Rag" for me, but she always said she no longer could. One day though, I was at her house with no other grandkids around and again pleaded to hear her play "12th Street Rag" for me. I was almost startled when she sat down on the piano's bench and whipped out "12th Street Rag" pretty as you please. Why she sounded near exactly as Bowman's playing style on the recording! She only missed on the odd note as well.
Upon reflection in more recent times I have to wonder if she selflessly practiced up on the piece just to spring it on me. I recall that at the time I immediately went home and began incorporating some her rendition into my playing of the piece, a bad infraction of my accordion teacher's rule to never be tempted to play by ear.
Now, all these years later I play "12th Street Rag" from memory, with embellishments last thing before closing the instrument in its case, no matter if I'm playing for practice, for fun, or to entertain others. I cannot now play it though without a catch coming up in my throat, if not a tear in my eye, reminiscing about that day with my little 5' 2" grandmother belting out "12th Street Rag" for me on her old Cable upright. She was so much more than a single musical performance to we grandkids, the rest of her family, and to any soul who came in contact with her.
I also ruefully reflect on the pain from arthritis just now beginning to make its presence felt in my right hand and fingers as I wade into the massed triplets in that third section, for you see, I am the same age now that she was in 1965-1966 when she played for me.
What a great story!!
