Green notes: right hand, blue notes: left hand. Preview played right in your browser with the app's real piano (lightweight version). Inside Pianovera: full multi-layer sound, fingering display and Wait mode.
← Swipe the image to read the score →Beginning of the score, engraved by the Mutopia Project.View the whole score (PDF) →
By 1908 Joplin was living in New York, and he published this rag that smells of summer: a melody spiraling upward, sly answers from the left hand, and a trio that swings harder than almost anything he wrote. The Pineapple Rag MIDI is the quiet favorite of many ragtime players, less worn than The Entertainer and every bit as irresistible.
Good news: it's also one of the most approachable. The stride stays within reasonable distances, the syncopations are frank without being twisted, and Joplin's beloved "not fast" tempo suits it perfectly. If you want to enter ragtime through a sunny door, this is the one.
Pineapple Rag: the first notes
Right hand, in letter names (C4 = middle C): G4 F4 D#4 D4 C#4 D4 C4 A#3 C4 D4 F4 G4 G4 F#4 G4 A4 A#4 C5 F4 F4 G5 F5 D#5 D5… The rest scrolls in the preview above, with the fingering, and the sheet music PDF has the whole piece.
Play Pineapple Rag on the virtual piano
Here are the Pineapple Rag virtual piano notes, in computer keyboard letters: the first strain, after the introduction. One key per note, read left to right; dark keys are the sharps, and a thin line marks each bar. The melody sounds an octave lower than written, so it fits on the keyboard.
Letters for a QWERTY keyboardYour keyboard: 26 notes
TR;WLWQJQWR7O
TR;WLW;RRWRWR
▶ Play on the virtual pianoThe piano opens with this piece loaded: the key to play lights up and waits for you.
What you'll be working on
A stride with sane jumps, perfect for entering the genre
Frank syncopations set against a square beat
The trio and its more singing F section
The solar character: bright, never brutal
Playing Pineapple Rag on piano with Pianovera
Left hand alone in Wait mode for the first two days, as with any rag. Then the preview at 75% shows you the syncopation puzzle: the green right hand lands systematically between two blue notes. That gap is ragtime.
Open Pineapple Rag in Pianovera: the notes fall toward an 88-key virtual piano keyboard, each hand gets its color, and Wait mode is there if you're starting out. On a PC, it's falling notes piano software for Windows, with video export up to 4K.
Free, with no time limit and no ads: 30 pieces (10 in full, 20 in a simplified version), the first 10 lessons and 10 minutes of 3D hands (then 15 seconds per piece). Premium opens all 651 pieces.
The work itself is in the public domain, and this MIDI engraving was placed in the public domain by its typesetter on the Mutopia Project. Use it freely, videos included.
About this piece
Is Pineapple Rag hard to play on piano?
We rate it intermediate: 2483 notes over 2:57, spanning A#1 to F6. The first thing to work on: a stride with sane jumps, perfect for entering the genre.
Where can I get the sheet music for Pineapple Rag?
Right on this page: the "View the sheet music" button opens the PDF (126 KB), engraved by the Mutopia Project from the same source as the MIDI file, Public domain license. View it, print it, keep it.
Is the Pineapple Rag MIDI file really free?
Yes. Scott Joplin died more than 70 years ago, so the work (1908) is public domain. This MIDI engraving is public domain too: download it and use it freely, videos included.
