This is my review on some REALLY awesome (but really unique) online keyboard training I came across called Universe Of Keys, which was developed by a SUPER talented professional piano, keyboard and Hammond organ player named Mike Little. So . . . let’s check it out!
Who Is Universe Of Keys For & Why Is It “Unique”?
Well . . . it’s NOT your typical “learn to play piano” course. There are TONS of those available online, including some really good ones that I’ve taken myself and then reviewed on my channel. But that’s not what the Universe Of Keys is all about. This course is not meant for complete beginners, it is actually aimed at people that CAN already play, anywhere from recreational up to experienced gigging players, that want to take their play to “the next level”. Now you don’t have to be a “super experienced, pro gigging keyboard player” to take this course.
The minimum level you should probably be at to take full advantage of the Universe Of Keys: you know the notes on the piano, you know basic chording, how to form and play major and minor chords, and you’re reasonably comfortable with playing along with a song (even at a basic, simple level) using a chord chart.
You should also have some basic knowledge of scales, even if it’s just major scales, and even if you only know them well in some of the easier keys.
And, while there is music notation AVAILABLE to you if you WANT it, you do NOT need to be able to read sheet music to take FULL advantage of this course. This course is actually PERFECT for people like me; I actually wish I’d discovered it a couple of years ago. I’ve been playing keyboard for about 5 years now, I play with a chord based approach, I can learn songs pretty quickly, and I can play basic but . . . “just OK” solos, and I’m able to play in bands and gig BUT at a fun, recreational level. But what I’ve found over the past year or two, is that it’s always challenging for me to make sure I don’t . . . “get into a rut” . . . trying to make sure I’m always challenging myself with new things to improve my playing. All too often, I start to notice how my comping, how I’m playing chords, or my solos . . . all of a sudden start sounding kind of the same as they did on the LAST song. And that’s where the Universe Of Keys comes in.
What Does The Universe Of Keys Offer To “Take Your Play To The Next Level”?
Well; the Universe Of Keys is basically: Mike Little sharing the vast experience he has accumulated over 30 years as a professional touring & gigging keyboard player, studio musician & producer.
He shares tips, tricks & lessons on practicing, scales, chording & chording patterns, comping, soloing, left hand bass lines, licks, improv & more, and he focuses on how to put these tips to use in real world situations, with practical in-depth song examples in different genres, complete with detailed backing tracks to play along with.
What Does Mike Little’s Experience Have To Offer?
Well . . . Mike’s musical resume is quite frankly . . . REALLY impressive: he has played and toured with BB King, Long John Baldry, Rodney Crowell, Richard Marx, Colin James, The Rankin Family, Tom Cochrane, Theory Of A Deadman, Corb Lund, Charlie Major, George Canyon and many more.
Make sure you check out his current band The Hello Darlin’s, they are a touring recording artist group with over a million streams (they are a fantastic band; I’ll include some links in the description below).
His studio musician work includes him playing on multiple gold and platinum records, as well as being involved in winning 2 Juno awards. He has personally been nominated for keyboardist of the year 17 times in the Canadian Country Music Awards, and has won that award 3 times. In addition to all of this, Mike’s knowledge and experience goes way beyond just being an amazing & experienced player – he also owned Canada’s largest backline company and a private music school for over 20 years, so he’s experienced in all areas of the music industry.
He is classically trained on piano, but has also spent over 35 years studying Hammond B3 (he is a super talented organ player), as well as all other types of keyboards, and his specialty is rock, country and blues. And beyond all of that, some other super important qualities that Mike Little has to offer? He is a casual, approachable & encouraging instructor who loves teaching, loves sharing the tips and tricks he’s picked up over his career, and is always super engaged with his students & followers on his YouTube channel & facebook group . . . and that’s super important! And, even now, he is still always trying to improve his own skills through private training with other professional players that he looks up to.
Course Overview
There are two MAIN tracks offered in the Universe Of Keys: Organ Pro & Piano Pro; or you can opt for full access to both of those with “Keyboard Pro”. Organ Pro is split into the following modules: Foundations, Blues, Licks & Tricks, Solos & Improv, and Resources (which is a collection of backing tracks and notation for sample songs used in the course). The piano Pro is split into a similar set of modules: Foundations, Blues, Country, Solos & Improv and a Resources module once again with backing tracks and notation.
There are various purchase options, including lifetime access to EVERYTHING, or monthly and yearly subscription options for Piano Pro, Organ Pro, or Keyboard Pro which is both. I would highly recommend just buying a lifetime subscription, but if you’re not sure, you can try out a monthly one for a bit to check it out, and then decide if you want to upgrade to a yearly or lifetime subscription. And FYI with a lifetime subscription, you also get a free 1 on 1 zoom lesson with Mike.
NOTE: I describe the content below, but you might prefer this excerpt from my YouTube review instead! (Or, a link to the complete YouTube review is at the bottom of this page)
Piano Pro
Piano #1: Foundations
So let’s dive into Piano Foundations and take a look – the first section is an intro to chording theory & diatonic chords, including some great techniques for learning a song by ear, and then the next lesson is actually one I want to talk about, because it’s a great example of what makes Universe Of Keys so cool – a short, simple tip on how to make moving from chord to chord sound better by using the diatonic 2 minor chord as a passing chord. This was one of the first lessons I did when I started Universe Of Keys, and it’s something that I was able to IMMEDIATELY start using . . . to improve my playing. And I also should mention; as is the case with most of the lessons in the Universe Of Keys, it was short at only about 5 minutes, simple & straight to the point, . . . BUT SUPER USEFUL! And I have that exact reaction to SOO many of Mike’s lessons!
Ok, so back to Piano Foundations; the next section is a collection of chording patterns, so ways to spice up your chording and make it sound more professional as opposed to just pounding repetitively on chords. Then there’s a lesson on practicing with the circle of fourths that has become part of my daily practice routine. In all the time I’ve been playing, I’ve tended to practice with the circle of fifths, and I have to admit, I’ve never practiced the “harder keys” as much as I should. I’m not sure what it was about practicing with the circle of fourths instead that actually GOT ME practicing the “harder keys” but that’s exactly what happened; and as a result, I’m much more comfortable in those key signatures than I ever was before.
Then in the next section, Mike starts applying these techniques with song examples in different genres. And the way that Mike goes over a song example is VERY unique and pretty cool, it’s NOT just a “typical song tutorial”. Instead of just “these are the chords, play it like this” (which is what you get in most song tutorials), he actually talks about the song, the changes in energy through the song, spots where you should be in a supporting roll, pull back and and let the other musicians do their thing, and then spots where you should come more to the forefront; this is that “energy arc” of a song that I mentioned earlier. And he will not only incorporate the tips and tricks from prior lessons, but will add some new ones as well; different options for comping (at different energy levels), some fill and soloing ideas etc.
Then after the song examples, there is a section on advanced chording where he shows some more advanced chording ideas. So that’s just Piano Foundations; then there are whole modules on Blues, on Country, and then a section just on Piano Solos & Improv.
Piano #2: Blues
So if we take a quick look at the Blues module, there is a TON of material in here. There are a bunch of lessons on simple, intermediate and advanced blues licks and fills, a bunch of comping and rhythm examples, and then a big section on boogie woogie basslines, and a bunch of turnaround and ending examples.
Piano #3: Country
The country module has a big focus on Floyd Cramer’s influential playing style, including his famous “slip note” style, and also includes lessons on country walk-ups, 3rds and 6s.
Piano #4: Solos & Improv
And then the Piano Solos & Improv section is divided into licks in different scale types (dorian, major and minor), sus 2 and add 2 licks, and then boogie woogie piano solos, so there’s a ton of valuable material to go through in there.
Piano #5: Resources
And then in the resources section, there are links to PDFs of notation that relate back to all the lessons, there are chord charts for all of the songs that have backing tracks, and then there is a backing track section with awesome backing tracks for practicing in all keys at 2 different speeds, and then the backing tracks for the song examples.
Organ Pro
So that’s the piano track; now on to the organ track; it’s basically the same general idea; there is a foundations module, a blues module, but then the general topic of improv is split into TWO modules: a licks and tricks module and a solos and improv module. Then we once again also have the resources module with notation and backing tracks from all the lessons.
Organ #1: Foundations
It’s the same structure, but the lessons are specific to organ playing techniques as opposed to piano, so they will include extra things like how to smoothly move from chord to chord (since there is no sustain pedal with a Hammond organ) with techniques like “crab-walking” passing chords, and of course learning how to get the most out of your drawbars to control that “energy arc” through your song. And the song examples are of course organ classics from different genres.
Organ #2: Blues
Then we have the blues module for organ; this module has SOOO much valuable material; and while it is important to note that there are a lot of differences between how you approach playing piano vs. organ, there is still a lot of SUPER useful material in both the piano and organ blues modules that is applicable to both, and totally worth going through regardless of what your main instrument focus is (this is actually a big reason I really recommend opting for the Keyboard Pro package so that you get both piano and organ lessons). Mike goes over the basics of blues, the importance of blues phrasing (so keeping conscious of leaving space when appropriate), has a ton of awesome blues licks to share, he demos a bunch of left hand bass lines if you’re covering a bass part on the organ, and also has a super valuable set of videos on what to do with your left hand when you ARE playing with a bass player (so you don’t get in the bass player’s way). Then he also has a big section on turnarounds and walk ups and walk downs. Super cool module here.
Organ #3: Licks & Tricks
The licks and tricks module is technically still improv, but it focuses on static and chromatic licks, and also has a VERY welcome (at least to me) section on slides. A lot of organ courses will mention “to smooth your transition between chords just use a palm smear or slide”, but . . . they don’t actually TEACH you how to do them properly. Well, Mike has included 4 lessons on HOW to do different types of slides. These have been SUPER helpful to me. And something else here that really helped me out are the static licks; while there is a lot of crossover between soloing and improv with piano vs. organ, you DO need to approach your soloing a bit differently on the organ, and these static licks were a GREAT place for me to get started; once again, short & sweet lessons that are straight to the point and instantly useful.
Organ #4: Solos & Improv
Then the solos & improv section are lessons on some more complex organ soloing techniques and examples. The cool thing about this section is that it not only includes things like solos in dorian or major or minor pentatonic, but also includes specific lessons in soloing in a straight vs. shuffle style, and also has a super cool section on reggae including the basic reggae “bubble” rhythm, as well as some reggae solos; this is another section that I found super useful – my new band has a couple of reggae or ska style songs, so it was really helpful having a couple of specific lessons on this style that I could jump straight into when I needed some help.
Organ #5: Resources
Same as the piano version, this includes backing tracks and optional notation that supports the lessons.
Bonus Module: Commercial Free YouTube Content
Then there is one more module, which is actually pretty cool; which is direct access to Mike Little’s YouTube content, only organized into categories and commercial free! Mike’s YouTube channel has a ton of free content that includes not only additional tips and tricks on playing, but also tons of extra stuff like gear talk videos, live performance videos, his “licks of the month” and lots of other videos, so having them available in this format instead of sifting through his YouTube channel is actually a pretty cool bonus.
How To Best Use Universe Of Keys
That brings me to a REALLY cool aspect of the Universe Of Keys program, which is how it’s structured. It’s NOT a “complete lesson one then you’re allowed to move on to lesson two etc”. While you CAN approach the Universe of Keys program that way, by going through modules one lesson to the next, you can ALSO access any lesson from any program at any time, which is great, especially for players who have some experience, and are looking for help with a specific topic, like I was when my band wanted me to play a reggae style organ on a song. And, I did this very thing again last week, where I was looking for some tips on playing a simple organ pad on a blues’y ballad– something to thicken up the sound of the song without getting in the way of the guitar and bass player, so I found a sequence of awesome lessons on exactly that, using Jackon Browne’s “Shaky Town” as the song example. As opposed to just setting your drawbars to a soft setting and holding down chords, Mike goes shows you how you can add so much more to the song by modifying your drawbar settings and what you’re playing, including slash chords to follow and support the “energy arc” of the song – follow and support fluctuations in energy from verse to chorus to solos etc. So having the ability to easily jump to something you need help with is awesome – being able to go look for and quickly find tips like these that really help you elevate your play to a higher level is awesome.
NEW Courses!
Now one other thing to mention; there are some new courses coming to the Universe Of Keys, hopefully ready to go later in 2025. There is a “Stage and studio pro” on gear, recording techniques & some other super useful stuff, there is a “Vocal Pro” course coming, taught be professional background vocalists to help you sing backup vocals and learn how to harmonize (this is something I DEFINITELY need help with so I’m looking forward to this). Then there is a 3rd program that’s not a course, but a bonus offered to anyone who subscribes to an annual or lifetime membership – this is access to some exclusive inside interviews. Now I should also note that the Stage & Studio Pro & the Vocals Pro WILL be included in your existing lifetime membership if that’s the one you choose to go with, so super cool.
Universe Of Keys: THE VERDICT
So the verdict on the Universe Of Keys online piano and organ training?
This is a fabulous collection of super helpful and super useful material, and I cannot recommend it enough!
It seems almost every time I do a lesson, my reaction is “that’s awesome!” and I immediately start thinking of how I can apply that lesson to various songs in my repertoire. You can approach it as a “course” if you want to, and go from lesson to lesson, OR you can just go looking for a specific topic and get some really useful tips and techniques in some short & sweet, but straight to the point “meat and potatoes” videos. I’m actually kind of taking both of those approaches – I’m working through lessons one at a time, but REALLY taking my time so that things hopefully sink in; but I am also finding myself jumping to specific lessons and topics when I’m looking for help on something specific which is awesome (and sometimes, the lesson I’ve jumped to IS one I’ve already done, so . . . evidence that sometimes I might be going a bit too fast).
The only thing to keep in mind, is that this is NOT a “start from scratch learning to play the piano” course with “these are the notes on the piano” etc; BUT . . . that being said, remember that you do NOT have to be a piano or organ superstar to get a ton out of this material either; if you’re even at a level where you are comfortable playing along with songs using chord charts, and you know your basic major and minor chords & how they’re formed, you’ll be able to dive into the Universe Of Keys and learn a ton. Like I said earlier, I really wish I’d come across the Universe of Keys a couple of years ago.
Which Subscription & Program Should You Choose?
As far as what version of the course to get and whether to go lifetime or with a subscription? That’s totally up to you; I mean if you are ONLY a piano player and have zero interest in organ playing, maybe just stick with the piano track, or vice versa; but most keyboard players that want to play in a band scenario (even if it’s just for fun jamming with friends) will likely find themselves playing piano or electric piano sometimes, then the band wants to play Gimme Some Lovin or another organ classic, so the full “Keyboard Pro” is still probably a good idea. And as far as subscription or lifetime goes? I’m a big fan of lifetime access to courses, and especially one like this with SOOO MUCH material to go through (there are over 300 videos in the Universe Of Keys), and as I mentioned, I want to (and kind of need to) really take my time and go at my own pace to make sure I get the most out of each lesson, so I don’t want to have to feel rushed because my subscription is expiring. If you want to just try out the course first, then maybe get a one month subscription, and then when you see how awesome it is, talk to Mike about upgrading to a lifetime model from there. And, don’t forget, if you choose a lifetime membership, you will also get a free 1 on 1 video lesson with Mike, which I’m planning on taking advantage of soon myself. And if you sign up for Universe Of Keys, make sure you also join the Facebook group, Mike is active in there all the time so that’s another great resource. I’m so glad that Mike Little took the time to put this material together, to share and pass on all of these experiences that he’s accumulated over the years.
So, that’s pretty much it for this review; I’ve left links in the description below to the Universe Of Keys site so you can check it out, Mike also has some informative videos about the program on there. I’ve also left some other links to his current band’s website The Hello Darlin’s, and a couple of other links for you to check out as well. So thanks a bunch for stopping by, and I hope to see you in the Universe Of Keys facebook group! Have an awesome day!
Thanks so much, and piano and organ playing! (and learning!)
Links:
Universe Of Keys YouTube Channel