The Entertainer
by Scott Joplin (1868–1917) · Early modern · Easy–Intermediate
Versions
The player above plays the first 20 seconds. Learn all 4:13 of The Entertainer in the PianoKite app: every version, both hands or one at a time, Wait mode on every bar, play-along at 50, 75 or 100% and per-bar feedback. Get early access.
- Era
- Early modern (1890–1930)
- Mood
- Joyful · bright and lively
- Versions
- 2
About this piece
Scott Joplin (1868–1917) is the composer of The Entertainer, an early-20th-century piece that is upbeat and sunny. The easiest of its 2 versions is level 2 of 5 and lasts 1:47; the hardest is level 3 (intermediate). In the app it belongs to the Ragtime collection. It is one of the 100 most popular pieces in our library.
About Scott Joplin (1868–1917): American composer known as the King of Ragtime. The Maple Leaf Rag (1899) and The Entertainer (1902) made syncopated piano music famous.
How to play The Entertainer on piano
- Learn each hand on its own before putting them together. In the app, choose Left or Right and the other hand plays for you, so you still hear the whole piece.
- Use Wait mode for the first few runs, then play along at 50% speed with the count-in.
- Work in short sections of four to eight bars rather than always starting from the top.
- The left hand jumps between a low bass note and a chord. Practise just the jumps, looking ahead to where your hand lands, until they're automatic.
- Start with the level 2 version. When you've learned about 80% of it, move on to the next harder version; the notes you already know make it quicker to learn.
- Short daily sessions beat one long weekly one. Ten focused minutes a day is enough to make steady progress.
In the PianoKite app you can learn it with your own digital piano over Bluetooth or USB, or with any piano through the microphone: the score scrolls past a playhead, the keys light up, and every bar gets a score so you can see what's learned. See how it works. New to the piano? Start with the beginner lessons. Get early access.
License and credits
Typeset by Chris Sawer for the Mutopia Project. License: Public Domain. Source: Mutopia Project.
Both the composition and the source file are in the public domain.
The other versions are MuseScore arrangements marked Public Domain or CC0, from the PDMX dataset (Long et al., 2024).
Text events such as lyrics were removed; the notes are as published. The player on this page plays the first 20 seconds.
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