Songs · Ukulele · Intermediate
The Entertainer
Scott Joplin · The Entertainer, a ragtime two-step (1902): the first strain
Ukulele · ragtimestrumming, fingerpickingC major2/4 time16 barsstandard tuning (high G)starts with a pickup
Arranged: Teddy Rook Book: the tune of the first strain for ukulele, taken from Joplin’s right hand (where he doubles it in octaves, we play the lower note), with chords from his left hand.
Loading the music…
About this piece
Joplin’s famous rag, published in 1902, more than a decade before the ukulele craze reached the mainland. Ragtime puts tune notes just ahead of the beat and ties them over it: count “1 e and a 2 e and a” and say the tied notes out loud before you play. The jumps in bars 1 and 5, from the open E string up to C at the 3rd fret of the 1st string, are easier than they look. Joplin wrote “Not fast”; we suggest a slower tempo still. To strum, play down-up eighths with a little weight on beat 2.
What it practices
- sixteenth notes
- syncopation
- ties across the beat
- C7, D7, Fm and G7
- a ragtime strum
Chords in this song
Each link opens the chord finder with more ways to play that chord.
Where the notes come from
The notes are Joplin’s, from our piano version of The Entertainer, which was checked note by note against the Mutopia Project edition (from a reproduction of the 1902 edition; public domain). We take its first strain once, ending on the chord of the second ending. Our own check compares every tab note with the piano version’s right hand at the same moment.
How to practice with it
- Listen first. Press Play and follow along. The note being played lights up in the tab, in the notation and on the fretboard, and the chord being played lights up in the row of chord diagrams.
- Learn the chords. Press each diagram to hear it, then practice changing between them slowly, before you add the strum pattern under the tab.
- Slow it down. Use − and + to set the tempo. 60% is a good place to start; the notes keep their pitch.
- One part at a time. Choose Tab only to hear the tune alone, or the other part alone, then put them together.
- Loop the hard part. Under More…, turn on Loop, pick the bars, and play them a few times in a row. Count-in gives you a bar of clicks before it starts.
Click a bar in the music to start from there. Space plays and pauses. Left-handed? Turn on the left-handed view: the chord diagrams and the fretboard are mirrored to match your instrument. Tab reads the same either way: the top line is always the first (highest) string.