The Soul of Country Piano with Matt Rollings
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Course Structure The Soul of Country Piano with Matt Rollings
Each lesson builds on the last, taking you from zero to hero!
Master country piano with Matt Rollings. Over 150 lessons covering scales, rhythm, fills, the Nashville Number System, and exploring many classic country styles with Matt’s “Time, Feel, and Function” method.
Getting Started
Meet your teacher and learn simple warm-ups to prepare your voice or instrument. Explore warm-up basics and get introduced to your teacher and course journey. Learn how to warm up and get to know your teacher as you begin your musical path.
Scales & Chords
Explore essential scales and chords to build a strong foundation for playing and improvising. Learn major, minor, pentatonic, and blues scales along with common chords and simple progressions. Discover key scales and chord types to support your musical growth and creativity.
Vocabulary
Explore the sounds of country piano using major, pentatonic, and blues scale vocabulary. Learn how scales shape the country piano sound and explore classic style influences. Discover how different scales contribute to the sound and feel of country piano music.
Time, Feel and Function
Learn how time, feel, and function shape musical expression, phrasing, and performance. Explore rhythm, dynamics, and role-playing to deepen your musical understanding. Understand time, feel, and function to support expressive and thoughtful playing.
Rhythm, Rhythm, Rhythm
Explore rhythm styles and progressions through call-and-response and classic grooves. Learn rhythm patterns and chord progressions in a variety of classic country styles. Develop rhythmic feel and groove using one-chord vamps, progressions, and call-and-response practice.
Fills
Learn to play country-style fills over simple vamps and progressions in various keys and feels. Explore traditional country fills using call-and-response and key-based progressions. Practice country piano fills to add color and movement to basic chord progressions.
Rhythm with Fills
Learn to blend rhythm and fills in classic country styles using vamps and progressions. Explore how to combine steady rhythm with expressive fills across various styles of country grooves. Practice rhythm and fills together to enrich your country piano playing in various keys.
Soloing
Learn to create authentic solos in classic country styles across common keys and grooves. Explore soloing techniques in ballad, swing, and honky tonk styles for country piano. Practice soloing with traditional country rhythms to build confidence and expression.
Number Charts
Learn the Nashville Number System to understand chords by ear and write simple charts. Explore intervals and number charts to strengthen your ear and musical understanding. Understand how to hear, read, and write chord progressions using the Nashville number system.
Styles: Ballads
Explore ballad rhythm, fills, solos, and voicings to express emotion in country piano. Learn how to play and shape country ballads with rhythm, fills, solos, and simple voicings. Discover how rhythm, voicings, and melodic ideas bring country ballads to life.
Styles: Mid-Tempo Playing
Learn mid-tempo country piano essentials with slip notes, grace notes, and expressive phrasing. Explore mid-tempo styles using intros, fills, solos, and classic country techniques. Discover slip notes and grace notes to add style and emotion to mid-tempo country tunes.
Styles: African, Blues & Gospel Influences
Explore how African, blues, and gospel roots shape rhythm, voicings, and soloing in country. Learn to blend blues and gospel elements into your country piano style with feel and depth. Discover cultural influences and scales that enrich country music with soul and expression.
Tricks & Licks
Explore tricks and licks that add color, motion, and depth to your country piano playing. Learn walkups, walkdowns, clusters, and voice leading to enrich your musical vocabulary. Discover stylistic tools like guide tones, octaves, and chromatic moves for country piano.
Styles: Boogie Woogie, Rock & Roll and Country Rock
Explore boogie woogie, early rock & roll, and country rock rhythms and styles. Learn classic rhythm styles from boogie woogie to country rock in various keys. Discover how early rock and boogie rhythms shaped the sound of country piano.
Styles: Blues Rock
Learn rhythmic techniques and voicings to blend well with electric guitars in blues-rock styles. Explore how to support electric guitar using rhythm, voicings, and classic blues-rock feels. Discover how to complement electric guitars with skeletal voicings and bluesy rhythms.
Styles: Playing in 3/4 Walz Time
Learn to play in 3/4 and 6/8 time with traditional country, blues, and gospel influences. Explore waltz and 6/8 rhythms with fills, solos, and gospel-blues expression. Discover the feel of 3/4 and 6/8 time in country, blues, and gospel piano styles.
Styles: Western Swing
Explore Western swing with voicings, rhythms, and solos using chromatic and pentatonic ideas. Learn Western swing piano with upbeat rhythms, left-hand roles, and melodic approaches. Discover the voicings, rhythms, and techniques that define Western swing piano.
About The Soul of Country Piano with Matt Rollings
Matt Rollings has created a definitive video library that includes hundreds of online piano lessons. Students have unlimited access to Matt's entire piano method, plus play-along tracks, and other study materials. What ultimately sets these guitar lessons apart from other online offerings is the ability to submit a video for review using the ArtistWorks Video Exchange learning platform. Seth reviews each submission and records a video response, offering tips about how to progress. All students can access the Video Exchange library, which is constantly expanding and may contain the key to unlock your playing.
About Matt Rollings
Matt Rollings is a Grammy-winning pianist, composer, record producer, and renowned piano educator whose journey began with a deep passion for music at an early age. Growing up immersed in diverse musical influences, he dedicated himself to the study of the piano, drawing inspiration from an array of genres that would later inform his innovative style. His early commitment to excellence laid a strong foundation for a career that would see him become one of the most sought-after session musicians and musical collaborators in the industry. Throughout his extensive career, Rollings has lent his exceptional skills to countless hit recordings and high-profile projects. His ability to seamlessly blend technical precision with soulful expression has earned him accolades, including multiple Grammy Awards, and the respect of artists across jazz, pop, country, and R&B. Over the years, he has collaborated with a roster of esteemed artists such as George Strait, Clint Black, and Vince Gill, among others, further demonstrating his versatility and deep influence in shaping modern music. In addition to his outstanding work in the recording studio, Matt Rollings is a passionate piano educator who dedicates much of his career to mentoring aspiring musicians. His commitment to nurturing new talent and his continuing contributions to music education underscore a legacy that is as influential behind the scenes as it is on stage.
What students are saying!
Easy to learn. Great Instructor!
Excellent course. Highly recommended!
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