New To Ragtime Guitar Style

**swingtoneman** · 02-11-2025, 08:23 AM

I have played plectrum style guitar for many years and I want to learn the style of ragtime guitar played finger style--completely new to me.
Which book would you suggest that would help me on that journey? Your advice most welcome.

Many thanks.

**digger** · 02-11-2025, 09:25 AM

The New Art of Ragtime Guitar by Richard Saslow.

That'll sort you out as a primer to the style.

Derek

**stevo58** · 02-11-2025, 09:49 AM

Woody Mann’s “Blues Roots” will get you a lot of the basics. It’s full of bits and pieces from all across the genre.

But then you have to learn the tunes. Blind Blake is the man. Guitar Workshop has a number of Blake-specific items. They also have some more general ragtime lessons with (e.g.) Blind Boy Fuller tunes, and of course lots of Gary Davis stuff. You’ll have a hard time picking it up from records, since there’s so much going on in there and most of the recordings are taken from rare and scratchy 78s. Once you’ve learned a few it gets easier to pick up new things by ear, since like all musical forms it has its patterns.

A “newer” recording (i.e. recorded when 33-1/3 was standard) : “Quah” from Jorma Kaukonen (even Gary Davis liked that one) is full of good stuff. And you can hear it.

Ragtime is FUN. I don’t think there’s anything I enjoy playing more. Every time I pick up a new acoustic guitar to try out, I automatically play ragtime on it to hear and feel it. Good luck and enjoy the journey. And when you get “Blind Arthur’s Breakdown” in your fingers, put up a video.

**swingtoneman** · 02-12-2025, 08:52 AM

Many thanks for your replies--much appreciated.

**Mick-7** · 02-12-2025, 02:14 PM

Stefan Grossman learned it directly from the masters, Reverend Gary Davis, et.al., and was the first to publish guitar instruction books on the subject. For example: https://www.melbay.com/Products/3093...me-guitar.aspx

**digger** · 02-12-2025, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by stevo58

Ragtime is FUN. I don’t think there’s anything I enjoy playing more.

This !!!!

**digger** · 02-13-2025, 03:07 PM

Here's a short run through of the first piece in the book I referenced above. The book is one of the best guitar instruction books I've seen - every bar is explained and it all makes absolute sense and the pieces are pretty straightforward but sound great.

**tbeltrans** · 02-13-2025, 04:22 PM

Another instructor on Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop site worth checking out is Clinton Davis. His material seems to currently be on sale. His video lessons range from beginning fingerpicking to get you started through to arranging piano ragtime for solo guitar.

Stefan Grossman'''s Guitar Workshop Online Store

The recommendation for Richard Saslow's ragtime book (previously recommended and demonstrated in this thread) is also a good one since he also touches on some of these subjects as well as the fact that his pieces are really fun to play and people seem to respond well to them.

Tony

**Skip Ellis** · 02-13-2025, 05:07 PM

Been watching Clinton quite a bit on YT - good stuff!
Mary Flower and Roy Bookbinder are good as well as John James. Also, everyone has to learn Dave Van Ronk's "St Louis Tickle'. "Maple Leaf Rag" is also a good one and not terribly difficult. There are quite a few good Japanese ragtime players if you search YT as well as Ton Van Bergeyk. Download the TEF View software and you can find TAB and notation for just about all the great rags - some are VERY difficult.

**tbeltrans** · 02-13-2025, 07:25 PM

John James is good too. He had quite a lesson set with Happy Traum's Homespun label on cassette. It is still there as an audio lesson set, probably MP3 and PDF. Ton Van Bergeyk is really good, but his stuff is more intricate and probably for somebody who has been playing ragtime for a while. Another is Dave Laibman at Stefan Grossmn's Guitar Workshop. He has several lessons, so do a search on his name to see them. Dave Van Ronk also has several lessons there too.

Ragtime guitar is fun to play and for folks to listen to. I get better response from that than I do chord melody playing. I often have the impression that jazz musicians tend to all too often play for each other rather than to the audience (almost like an inside joke that the audience isn't privy to), but any time I have seen a ragtime guitar player perform, it always seems to be for the audience. I am not sure why I have that sense, and maybe it is completely wrong, but it has been consistent in my own observations. When people wonder why jazz isn't more popular, that is what comes to mind. Ragtime guitar isn't popular either, but when played, it is usually well received.

Tony

**digger** · 02-14-2025, 03:28 AM

I tend to agree. I'm not much of a player in any style, but when I do play the ragtime stuff it tends to be received better than other styles. Of course, that's most likely down to me being less poor at the ragtime style than I am, at say, swing soloing. I do think that out there in the real world there are far fewer thumb pickers than flat pickers (in the broader sense, not the stylistic sense) and as long as the thumb picking is done relatively well it tends to turn heads. There's almost certainly a geographical element to this, too. If I lived across the pond then I might discover that no one would even spare my efforts a second glance.

Back on track and yet diverting further from the OP's request about ragtime (the thread sort of instantly leapt to ragtime blues with hardly any warning) there's a style of jazz guitar that never seems to get discussed here, but is where I'd like to head, and that's the area where thumb picking and chord melody and jazz combine - I'm thinking Pat Donahue and Duck Baker and sometimes Richard Smith.

Anyway, apologies for the thread hijack!

Derek