Riders on the Storm Piano Lesson with Mike Little

This is what every keyboard tutorial on YouTube should strive to be

I’ve been playing for 50 years and this is the best tutorial I’ve ever encountered. Wish I found this decades ago.

About halfway through the video, he's already fully covered all the licks from Riders, the key and the dorian mode, the hand shapes used, the minor pentatonic vs blues scale, approaches to use when soloing, and there's still 22 left minutes to go! He certainly seems like a powerhouse in teaching piano. Far beyond just the notes, this is the approach to theory that I've been looking for.

Mike, I've been playing Riders On The Storm on piano since it was first released. NEVER have I seen such an absolutely perfect breakdown of Ray Manzarek's skills presented and taught - YOU ARE AMAZING! As someone who strives for playing perfection as in the recorded song...I love how through the Dorian scales, blues scales, fifths, rhythms, and everything you present - that I can have more confidence and knowledge to make Riders 'my own' so to speak - yet always have the recorded version permanently ingrained in brain-to-fingers! :-) This is absolutely phenomenal - you're the best! Thank you!!

Without any doubt, the best tutorial for keys that I have ever watched! Just the right amount of explanation/breakdown and not a trace of ‘Just do what I do’. Wonderful. Going to apply this tomorrow and see how I get on. Thanks!!

To think the label hated this song calling it Lounge music. Riders grooves so well.

I'm a classical pianist and just meander around this kind of music. This is a simply amazing top quality, calm, no gimmicks tutorial. Ray really understood structure, rhythm and melody and so does this tutor.

You should do Tutorials on how to make Keyboard/Piano Tutorials. modest relaxed overall pace, small chunks to digest, well balanced sound, camera focus and piano roll placement, orientation and alignment. Excellent. Way to many content creators fail to get this right. which is a shame. and it tilts the hell out of me - which is why i dont look for tutorials anymore. I am very pleased and an happy that i found your channel. You deserve more cookies than i could ever bake. <3

This is the best piano lesson. The scales, the licks, the back stories on one of my favorite bands and song. Thank you. I started playing piano 6 months ago. This was one of my first lessons. I’ve taken little bites of you teaching as I progressed. I’ve finally has mastered all of it. Life long guitar player now I have Piano chops. Thanks so much!

Tutorials like these is what any inspiring keyboard or piano player actually needs. Thanks a lot.

What you did here is priceless! So many concepts explained through such an beautiful song which acts as a motivator! Thank you

Thank you! Now I UNDERSTAND why this song has always sounded so beautiful to me.

I'm loving the balance of practice and theory here, and your enthusiasm is infectious, so I've subscribed (from Australia). I'm totally going to master this song that's been stuck in my head and my heart ever since it was new!

As others have said: best tutorial on youtube. May I add, not just the best piano tutorial, the best tutorial,period. And while you’re at it, the best ASMR video as well. Thank you so much for this valuable content.

You broke this down brilliantly, I have studied this video carefully and learnt so much . Thank you. 👍🎹🎹🎹

teaches us not only how to play the song but also basic fundamentals to playing keyboard (or playing music in general) 🙏🏻❤️

Doors used studio bass players in many studio recordings but never live . The Doors did 2 more LPS after Morrison died. I felt a need to clarify. The Doors did not end when Morrison died. Other Voices and Full Circle had some great tracks that are not forgotten in my home.

As mentioned, this is how a song lesson should be! Thank you! 3:03 Riders On The Storm Part 1: Ray’s COMPING TOOLBOX 5:33 COMPING TOOLBOX Verse 1, Progression Part 1 6:30 COMPING TOOLBOX Verse 1, The Bassline 7:48 COMPING TOOLBOX Verse 1, Progression Part 2 9:04 COMPING TOOLBOX Verse 1, Progression Part 3 9:30 COMPING TOOLBOX Verse 1, Putting It All Together 10:07 COMPING TOOLBOX Verse 2, Progression Part 1 11:13 COMPING TOOLBOX Verse 2, The Guitar Solo 11:54 COMPING TOOLBOX Comping Review 12:31 Riders On The Storm Part 2: Ray’s SOLO TOOLBOX 13:20 SOLO TOOLBOX: Step 1 Improvising using Dorian Scale 14:21 SOLO TOOLBOX: Step 2 Minor Pentatonic Scale and Blues Scale 17:47 SOLO TOOLBOX: Step 3 Thinking In Shapes 22:23 SOLO TOOLBOX: Step 4 Inverted Fifths 25:02 SOLO TOOLBOX: Step 5 Incorporating Rhythm 26:22 SOLO TOOLBOX: Step 6 Phrasing 28:40 SOLO TOOLBOX: Step 7 Making it your own 30:12 Riders On The Storm: The Intro 32:40 Riders On The Storm: Backing Track: Overview 38:05 Riders On The Storm: Play with Backing Track

I have been looking for someone on YouTube as inspiring as Rick Beato is for the guitar but for the piano (my instrument and I never held a guitar) to being in music together with chords, scales and music theory and have a non-classical perspective (no sheet music). This looks like what I was looking for. This episode (the first I hit from you) is absolutely brilliant and really talks to me.

One of the best tutorials I've come across. One of my favourite keyboard solos, brilliantly respected and unpacked. Love it!