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In addition to operating a franchise of ragtime
piano instruction schools throughout the United States, Axel
Christensen also cashed in through the publication and sale of
instruction manuals that were marketed as self-study correspondence
teaching materials for students, particularly for those persons who
did not live in a city with a Christensen school.
Because Christensen appeared to have updated his
teaching manuals periodically and created new ones, it is difficult
to track and compile a complete listing of these manuals. For now, I
set out below two such manuals: Christensen's
Rag-Time Instruction Book For Piano (circa 1909) and
Axel Christensen's New Instruction Book for Rag and Jazz
(circa 1920). The dates of publication for these manuals are based
on the latest copyright date at the front of each manual. Notice how
with the later manual below – circa 1920 – that Christensen is now
capitalizing on the jazz trend (by including "Jazz" in the title of
his manual).
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The Table of Contents from the from the
first manual (see to the right) shows that
Christensen's method was in part to simplify ragtime
piano into "three movements" which were three basic
right-handed syncopated rhythms common to most rags. He
also then sets out for the student a number of exercises
that steadily incorporate and build upon these three
movements. The manual also includes a number of
instrumental rags and a fair bit of written instruction
on ragtime theory. As someone who was a believer and
supporter of the concept of the "classic" rag,
Christensen advocates a fair bit of improvisation by
having the student play various standard chords and
musical passages using each of the three ragtime
movements or patterns.
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Christensen's first "rag-time movement" (below) is
one of the more common rhythms associated with ragtime:
The second "rag-time" movement" is also a commonly
used pattern in ragtime piano:
Likewise, the third "rag-time movement" is a
variation of the previous movements and commonly employed by ragtime
composers:
Christensen was not the only ragtime personality
to publish self-instruction manuals. One interesting pre-ragtime era
teaching manual I came across was a Canadian publication from 1894
entitled How to Vamp: A New Method of Teaching the Art of
Playing by Ear by Theodore La Motte:
The first purely ragtime instruction manual
appears to have been
published by Edward Winn in early 1900. The version of Winn's manual below
is from 1915:
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Winn, Edward R. Winn's
Practical Method of Popular Music: Rag and Jazz
Piano Playing.
New York, NY: Jerry Vogel Music Co., 1913 ~ 1920.
[view entire guide]
Source:
Personal collection [top]
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Scott Joplin published his School of Ragtime
in 1908. It is not nearly as extensive or lengthy as Christensen's
manuals since Joplin only sets outs six ragtime exercises, with
brief comments:
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Scott Joplin. School of Ragtime.
New York, NY: Scott Joplin, 1908.
[view
entire guide]
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I recently acquired the following ragtime
instruction manual by H.J. Beckerman (with ragtime composer F. Henri
Klickmann editing the exercises):
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Beckerman, H.J. (with F. Henri Klickmann as arranger).
The American School of Ragtime Piano Playing.
Chicago, IL: S.M. Mautner, 1918.
[view
entire guide]
Source:
Personal photocopy [top]
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Also from the ragtime-era are the following two
instruction manuals (neither of which I have been able to locate):
- Waterman's Piano Arrangements. Glenn R. Waterman.
Waterman Piano School, 1918.
- Ten Lessons for Piano. Zez Confrey. New York: Jack
Mills, 1926.
Finally, there are two current ragtime composers
who have published their own ragtime instruction manuals:
[return
to Table of Contents] [top]
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