A novelty-style ragtime composition that adopts the cheerful, syncopated rhythms characteristic of early 20th-century American popular piano music. It is marked by its lighthearted melodic content and standard stride-influenced accompaniment patterns.
Students must master the steady left-hand stride pattern while maintaining clean, crisp syncopation in the right hand.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Banana Pepper Rag is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 3.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 3 — meaning you can already play level 2–3 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of Banana Pepper Rag lasts about 2 minutes.
Banana Pepper Rag is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.
Pieces at a comparable difficulty and character include 24th Street Rag by Cameron Lee Simpson, Bullseye Rag by Cameron Lee Simpson, Bricktown Rag by Cameron Lee Simpson — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.