"Bach gave us God’s word. Mozart gave us God’s laughter. Beethoven gave us God’s fire. God gave us music so we might pray without words."

Matt Rogers, Chapman Stick(™) Musician, picked up the tapping technique while playing lead electric guitar for the Celtic Rock band, The Killdares and his own band, No Regrets. Skipping Tony Levin for Stanley Jordan, he realized what the Stick’s inventor had realized, it was possible to have the best of all musical worlds within one instrument. With a classical guitar base, a lead electric guitar and classic rock sensibilities, Matt found himself with an instrument that would help define his music once found on battlefields and in castles from ancient times bringing back the Warrior Poet.

The notes pour out of his instrument, coming from the hands of a tasteful performer and artist. ~Emmet Chapman, Inventor of the Chapman Stick(™) and Musician.

His latest piece of instrumental bliss, Up From The Ashes, is a beautifully arranged, tender-hearted sonic expression which clearly seats Matt as a young master of his craft, at the top of his skill and still ascending. ~ from The Ark of Music Review

Matt’s latest project, When We Dream, is a compilation album of favorite songs from childhood. A passion project, this album started off as just a bit of fiddling on the Stick when the tune came together, Matt found the strings had taken him back to a childhood favorite, the Rainbow Connection.

Not unlike unlearning the guitar to learn the Stick, Matt has had to reach back and discovered there’s a bit of jazz in those old childhood tunes. A jazzy learning curve to a classic rocker will soon reveal an album of the following: Rainbow Connection (The Muppets Movie), Feed the Birds (Mary Poppins), Let it Go (Frozen), and more for the child in all of us. 💿

You live in the music. ~ Boerne Farmer’s Market patron

Music runs deep in Matt’s bloodline. His grandmother, a first chair Violinist, his father, a pianist, his mother a pianist, violinist, and guitarist, and Matt, guitarist turned Stickist.

Hearing Simon & Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence for the first time reached so deeply into his soul, Matt knew then he wanted to be a musician. He was five. Though his mother, initially, took him kicking and screaming to his first guitar lesson at age 12, it wasn’t long before she couldn’t get him out of his room to eat.

Influences include, but aren’t limited to Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Michael Hedges, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Williams, Joaquin Rodrigo, among others too many to mention.

After years of playing in rock bands and teaching guitar, he finally received his first Chapman Stick® in 1995, a gift from his Dad, and has been playing professionally ever since. 🎶

In the early days as a soloist, he played a number of society events; including parties, weddings, country clubs, and private functions. It was during this time he was finding his style on the Chapman Stick; settling into his sound and recording his first original compositions: Days Gone By and Scurryin’ Fairies from the Days Gone By album; Through My Eyes and Sanctuary from the Treasures album; and The Wishing Bridge, Awakening, and Up from the Ashes from the Far & Wide album.

In 2006, he formed the Concept Duo Heartstrings with Mark White, creating their trademark lush, interwoven arrangements featuring the sound of their two Chapman Sticks in harmony and counterpoint. Mark, a former guitar student of his turned Chapman Stick student picked up the nuances of the Stick® quickly and their duo was born.

For over a decade, Heartstrings had the distinction of being the only full-time Stick duo in the country, exposing countless people to their sound and to the Chapman Stick itself.

Heartstrings played high profile art festivals across the country, including the American Craft Festival at Lincoln Center Plaza in New York, New York; 5th Ave. Winter Fest, Tucson, AZ; and Cottonwood Festival, Dallas, Texas, to name a few.

Matt has since returned to his roots as a soloist; embarking on a new journey into the fertile musical ground of Celtic, bluegrass, and other musical genres which catch his ear.

For more on his original songs, check out his e-book Speaking in Strings

The notes pour out of his instrument, coming from the hands of a tasteful performer and artist. ~Emmet Chapman, Inventor of the Chapman Stick(™) and Musician.

Matt Rogers, Chapman Stick Musician, picked up the tapping technique while playing lead electric guitar for the Celtic Rock band, The Killdares and his own band, No Regrets. Skipping Tony Levin for Stanley Jordan, he realized what the Stick’s inventor had realized... Click for more