Roses by Outcast might just have one of the most awesome piano intros out there. In this lesson we’ll break down that exact piano intro, chord by chord, lick by lick.

Hi Guys! What’s up?

When I myself first heard the tune Roses by Outkast, I couldn’t play piano yet. I recall that moment quite vividly. I needed to be able to do that. Replicate this absolute masterpiece of a piano intro on the keys myself. It was in fact one of the (many) main triggers for me to actually take the plunge. To go and sit at the piano at my parents’ place and figure out how this whole “music” stuff works.

Fast-forward roughly 15 years and now I’m here to pass on my knowledge and teach you this part – one of the coolest intros of the 00’s. A guaranteed panty-peeler.

Lick Galore

This intro of Roses is a fine example of stringing together multiple licks, using mostly blues- and pentatonic runs, to form one big “lick galore” that is the entire intro. For Premium Couturians it’s therefore quite a nice practical example of using multiple licks, while learning a few new ones as well 🙂

Entire Tune

Also note that the right hand solo part (the licks) are played over the actual entire chord progression of the rest of the tune. This means that by learning this and combining it with your voicing and pattern knowledge, you’ll be perfectly able to play the rest of the tune as well.

First chord sheet below the video. Full chord sheet (all images from video), MIDI & audio only file available for Premium Couturians on the Premium Tutorial.

Outkast | Roses (Intro)