Ragtime became widespread through the sale of published sheet music, contrasting sharply from early jazz which was spread by recordings and live performances. Perhaps the most famous composer of ragtime music, Scott Joplin(1867 or 1868 - 1917) composed two of the genre's most well known and popular pieces, 'The Entertainer' and 'The Maple Leaf Rag.' The term 'ragtime' is beleived to be a contraction of the term 'ragged time,' which refers to the music's rhythmically broken up meledies. Ragtime is usually written in 2/4 or 4/4, has a predominant left-hand pattern of bass notes on strong beats(beats 1 and 3), has chords on weak beats(beats 2 and 4), has a syncopated melody in the right hand