Ragtime:

Andrew Barrett is obsessed with a form of music that reached the height of its popularity during World War I, 70 years before his birth.

One might think the Costa Mesa resident is part of a dying breed, but the 20-year-old ragtime fanatic is part of a nationwide network of old-time piano enthusiasts who are keeping the music alive through conventions, competitions and Internet forums.

This weekend, Barrett is flying to Peoria, Ill., to compete in the World Championship Old-Time Piano Contest, which he describes as the premiere national competition for ragtime pianists.

Barrett scrimped and saved so that he could afford a plane ticket out there.

“There is no other contest this high caliber and serious in the U.S. I’ve wanted to go for the past couple years, and this year I’m finally able to go,” he said.

When he arrives, he expects to meet fellow aficionados from Indiana, Virginia and Texas, with whom he’s maintained an Internet correspondence for years.

Although they don’t see each other face-to-face, the men, who consider themselves friends, exchange sheet music, watch YouTube videos of each other playing and talk about all things ragtime, sometimes in language that’s incomprehensible to a layman.

“Most people don’t even know there’s a scene,” Barrett said. “They don’t know there are festivals, but they might know who Scott Joplin is, and they recognize the music when they hear it.”

Barrett drew his early inspiration from his father, a traditional jazz musician.

“It’s not very easy to make a living at this stuff these days. Not a lot of people listen to traditional jazz these days, even compared with 30 years ago,” Barrett said.

The closest ragtime ever came to the fame it enjoyed at the turn of the century, was in the early 1970s when “The Sting,” starring Paul Newman, hit theaters with a full score composed of the old-time classics.

Still, Barrett is entertaining the idea of following in his father’s footsteps. He plans on going to OCC and possibly studying music this fall.

Aside from performing well-known pieces by Joplin and other composers from the era, Barrett writes his own rags, drawing on chordal structures and swing rhythms from the period.

In one YouTube video, recorded by a shaky-handed friend, Barrett spends almost nine minutes taking the audience through the process of composing his rag, “Flying Rhino,” while a noisy, inattentive crowd shuffles and makes noise behind him.

If Barrett wins the competition, he will come home $1,200 wealthier.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.