Ragtime-Era Ukulele

By the 1920s the ukulele was a fixture of popular music in the United States. Sheet music for the latest songs printed little ukulele chord diagrams over the words, and amateurs everywhere strummed along. The style borrowed from ragtime and early jazz: lively rhythms and chains of seventh chords.

The ragtime chord chain

Start on E7 and step around the circle of fifths: E7, A7, D7, G7, C. Each seventh chord leans toward the next, so the chain keeps pulling until it lands home on C. It’s often called the ragtime progression, and you’ll find it in many songs of the era. The last three links, D7–G7–C, are the vamp you already know.

Swung down-up eighths with accents on 2 and 4. From E7 to A7, lift the fingers from the G and A strings and move the C-string note back one fret.

A tune on the chain

Ragtime Ramble is a practice tune of our own, made of the notes of each chord in turn. Pick it, or strum while the player picks.

Real ragtime: The Entertainer

Scott Joplin published The Entertainer in 1902, the height of the ragtime years. Our ukulele version takes the tune of its first strain from Joplin’s piano part. Ragtime tunes are syncopated: notes land just before the beat and are tied over it. Count sixteenth notes, “1 e and a 2 e and a,” and learn it slowly; Joplin himself wrote “Not fast” at the top of the music.