Well I guess my music came to prominence around one piece called 'In C' which I wrote in 1964 at that time it was called 'The Global Villages for Symphonic Pieces', because it was a piece built out of 53 simple patterns and the structure was new to music at that time.

It can be found when listening to the fictional radio station "The Journey". Produced and directed by Robert Ashley. Techniques
Riley's music is usually based on improvising through a series of modal figures of different lengths such as in In C (1964) and the Keyboard Studies.

His work has been deeply influenced by both jazz and Indian classical music.