George Botsford - Chatterbox Rag 1910 (Ragtime Piano Synthesia)

Sequenced by Colin D. MacDonald Chatterbox Rag lives up to its name, chattering away through this 1910 ragtime piano Synthesia video with falling notes. Composer George Botsford was born in South Dakota, joined New York's Tin Pan Alley crowd, and is best remembered for Black and White Rag; he was also a founding member of ASCAP in 1914. This lesser-known gem shows the same knack for catchy syncopation. Sequenced by Colin D. MacDonald, it makes a fun ragtime piano tutorial for players of all levels. 🎼 ABOUT GEORGE BOTSFORD George Botsford (1874-1949) was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, grew up in Iowa, and made his career in the Tin Pan Alley song factories of New York, where he wrote ragtime almost exclusively. His "Black and White Rag" of 1908 was the third rag ever to sell a million copies of sheet music, and it has had a curious afterlife: recorded endlessly for phonograph and player piano, it became famous all over again in Britain decades later as the theme of a televised snooker programme. "Grizzly Bear Rag", "Chatterbox Rag" and "Texas Steer" followed. He was a founding member of ASCAP in 1914 and by the 1920s had largely set composing aside to organise vaudeville shows. His rags are less lofty than Joplin's and all the more fun for it: direct, catchy and built to be played. Bright, extroverted commercial ragtime: a bouncy alternating bass under punchy right-hand strains full of repeated patterns, wide leaps and crisp octaves. Harmony is simple and diatonic with clear contrast between strains. Best at a lively but controlled tempo - showy to hear, very manageable to learn. 🎹 TURN ANY PIANO RECORDING INTO MIDI Want to learn this piece — or any recording — with falling notes like in this video? I built Transcribe by Midiverse: upload audio and it becomes MIDI with left/right hand separation, a falling-notes practice mode, slow-down and looping. Free to start: ► https://transcribe.midiverse.ai 🎧 HOW TO PRACTISE THIS PIECE Ragtime rewards patience: keep the left-hand bass-chord alternation strictly in time and let the right hand's syncopation float against it. Practise hands separately first, set the tempo to around 60% until the leaps are safe, and resist rushing — Joplin famously warned that ragtime should never be played fast. 🔎 MORE PIANO SYNTHESIA ON THIS CHANNEL ► Ragtime piano Synthesia:    / @itsremco   ► More George Botsford on piano:    / @itsremco   ► All videos:    / @itsremco   📸 Instagram:   / its.remco   🤖 Reddit:   / its_remco   🎹 My gear & practice tools: ► Roland RP501R digital piano: https://amzn.to/2QB4SvG ► iReal Pro backing tracks app: https://amzn.to/2MS0Ca3 As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. ABOUT THIS CHANNEL itsRemco is a piano Synthesia channel dedicated to ragtime piano, the syncopated style of Scott Joplin, James Scott and Joseph Lamb that set the stage for early jazz. Every video shows the notes falling in real time so you can see exactly what both hands are playing, learn by ear and eye together, and practise along at your own pace. Subscribe for new piano transcriptions every week. #RagtimePiano #Synthesia #GeorgeBotsford #ChatterboxRag #Ragtime #ClassicRagtime #Syncopation #PreJazz #PianoTutorial #PianoCover #FallingNotes #MidiPiano #PianoSolo #TinPanAlley #Piano