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Stride, also known as New York ragtime, is a jazz piano style where the pianist's left hand may play a four-beat pulse with a bass note or tenth interval on the first and third beats, and a chord
Chord (music)

In music and music theory a chord is a set of two or more different note that sound simultaneously. Most often, in European-influenced music, chords are tertian Sonority that can be constructed as stacks of thirds relative to some underlying musical scale....
 on the second and fourth beats, or an interrupted bass with three single notes and then a chord while the right hand plays melodies, riffs and often contrapuntal lines. The name "stride" comes from the left-hand movement "striding" up and down the keyboard.






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Stride, also known as New York ragtime, is a jazz piano style where the pianist's left hand may play a four-beat pulse with a bass note or tenth interval on the first and third beats, and a chord
Chord (music)

In music and music theory a chord is a set of two or more different note that sound simultaneously. Most often, in European-influenced music, chords are tertian Sonority that can be constructed as stacks of thirds relative to some underlying musical scale....
 on the second and fourth beats, or an interrupted bass with three single notes and then a chord while the right hand plays melodies, riffs and often contrapuntal lines. The name "stride" comes from the left-hand movement "striding" up and down the keyboard. Pedal technique further varies the left hand sound.

The technique was originated in Harlem
Harlem

Harlem is a Neighbourhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center....
 during World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
  by Luckey Roberts
Luckey Roberts

Charles Luckeyeth Roberts, better known as Luckey Roberts was a composer and stride pianist who worked in the jazz, ragtime, and blues styles....
 and James P. Johnson
James P. Johnson

James Price Johnson [A.K.A. "Jimmy Johnson"] was an African-American pianist and composer. With Luckey Roberts, Johnson was one of the originators of the Stride piano style of jazz piano playing....
. It was partially influenced by ragtime
Ragtime

Ragtime is an originally American musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Ragtime was the first truly American musical genre, predating jazz....
 but as a jazz piano idiom, features improvisation
Improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings....
, blue note
Blue note

In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower Pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres....
s, and swing rhythms which its predecessor did not. The practitioners of this style practised a very full jazz piano style that made use of classical devices. They sometimes engaged in cutting contest
Cutting contest

Cutting contests were a form of musical battles between various stride piano players of between the 1920s and 1940s. The contests were usually held at "rent party" in the homes of locals of Harlem, in which entrance money was used to pay off the rent....
s to sh ff their skill.