Pig Ankle Rag Mandolin Tabs

"Pig Ankle Rag" is an instrumental song that is sometimes played in Bluegrass and Old-Time jams. A "rag" is a piece of music that's associated with, or happens to be from, the ragtime era. Ragtime is a type of music that was popular in the late 19th century and very early 20th century, which was around 1890-1920. Ragtime music is known for it's syncopated or "ragged" rhythm.

The Pig Ankle Rag sounds great on the mandolin. It's usually played in the key of D major. Which is one of the easier keys to play out of on this great little instrument.

The melody starts off with some syncopated rhythms and an arpeggio on a dominant seventh chord. This makes a very strong and compelling introduction. The pentatonic scale is used a lot throughout this tune. D major pentatonic and A major pentatonic are used. Notice how the scales share all notes except one! That's pretty cool right?

Since this is a ragtime piece we can see and hear some early elements of jazz in the chord progression. Notice the typical 6-2-5-1 chord changes at the end of each section. Here, in the key of D, that ends up being B7 - E7 - A7 - D. This is named "6-2-5-1" because it follows chords based on the scale degrees in a given key. D major is D E F# G A B C#(1 2 3 4 5 6 7). A 6-2-5-1 is also a cycle through what's known as "the circle of 5ths/4ths". Also, notice that diminished passing chord between G and D. That's another cool way to make what would have been a simple chord change a bit more interesting.