Intro to R&B Keys in 7 Days
Capture the sound of modern R&B.
Intermediate players
This class is designed for pianists who have been playing for a few months and are comfortable with basic chords, scales, rhythm, and playing with both hands.
7 days
Rob will guide you through 7 days of step-by-step instruction with daily practice plans and assessments.
Expand your vocab
This class will help you build a practical toolkit for playing the colorful chords and smooth moves that gives R&B its signature sound.
Take the next step
Once you've mastered this challenge, keep learning with more challenges and guided Learning Pathways.
What you'll learn
In this class, Rob Araujo shows you how to get the soulful sounds of R&B under your fingers. Each day, you'll learn a practical technique you can immediately use to make your chord progressions more colorful and expressive.
- Add movement to your chords
- Navigate iconic R&B progressions
- Break out of ‘one-key’ diatonic harmony
- Develop an authentic R&B feel
Curriculum
Stay focused with this step-by-step learning program designed by our expert team of music educators.
Your guided learning experience
In this 7-day Challenge, Rob will guide you through the essential chords and harmonic techniques that bring modern R&B piano to life. Each day builds on the last, helping you understand how these ideas come together in real chord progressions.
V7sus
Every style has a few signature sounds, and this is one of the biggest in R&B.
To kick off the class, you'll learn how to transform a basic dominant chord into a smooth, soulful voicing using suspended notes and colorful extensions.
Once you hear it, you'll start noticing it everywhere.
Chord planing
Next you'll learn one of the signature techniques behind modern R&B harmony: chord planing.
By moving familiar chord shapes in parallel, you'll unlock the smooth, floating sound heard in countless R&B and soul songs.
Dominant color
After that, you’ll add new harmonic flavor with dominant substitutions and altered dominant chords.
These two lessons are all about expanding your vocabulary. Rob will show you how these sounds create tension and momentum in your progressions.
Day 6. Tonicizing the IV
One of the hallmarks of great R&B harmony is making familiar progressions feel fresh. Here, Rob will show you how to guide your chords naturally toward the IV using chord planing and a classic ii-V-I progression, creating smooth movement that you'll hear in countless songs.
Day 7. Tonicizing the vi
To wrap up the class, you'll learn one final technique for adding momentum to your progressions. By introducing an altered dominant chord that resolves to the vi, you'll tie together the harmonic ideas from the week and give your playing even more depth and expression.
Performances
It's time to put everything into practice. You'll learn an original Rob Araujo composition that combines the chords, voicings, and harmonic techniques from the class, giving you a chance to hear how these ideas come together in real music.
Day 1. V7sus chords
You’ll start the class by learning one of the most important chord sounds in R&B piano. You’ll learn how to build a V7sus chord, add color tones, and use it in a laid-back ii-V-I progression.
In this intro lesson, Rob will show you how suspending the 3rd of a dominant chord changes the feeling of the resolution. You’ll practice root-position voicings, inversions, and a full progression.
Days 2-3. Chord planing
In these lessons, you’ll focus on chord planing. This technique lets you move the same chord shape around the keyboard for smoother and jazzier motion. You’ll apply it to V7sus chords and minor 7 chords.
Day 2. V7sus planing
You’ll learn how to create smooth harmonic movement by shifting V7sus chord shapes around the keyboard. You’ll practice root-position voicings and inversions through guided jams while exploring how this sound creates forward momentum in R&B progressions.
Day 3. Iim7 planing
Now, you’ll apply the same concept to minor 7 chords, moving them by a minor 3rd to create rich harmonic color. Rob will guide you through root voicings, inversions, and rootless shapes that help you use chord planing in your own R&B progressions.
Days 4-5. Dominant color
In these lessons, you’ll explore two powerful ways to add color and tension to your progressions: dominant substitution and altered dominant chords.
Day 4. Dominant substitution and III7
Rob will show you how substituting a III7 chord can pull in harmonic flavor from another key. You’ll practice IV-iii-ii-III7 progressions with root voicings, inversions, and two-hand voicings.
Day 5. The altered chord
In this lesson, you'll take the dominant substitution sound further with altered dominants, one of the defining chord colors in R&B, soul, and jazz. Rob will help you apply this altered sound to the progression from Day 4 so you can add more emotion and tension without losing the groove.
Days 6-7. Iconic R&B progressions
In the final two days, you’ll use everything you’ve learned to play two essential R&B progressions. These lessons also show you how to create movement toward the IV and vi chords.
Day 6. Tonicizing the IV
Rob introduces a new progression built around one of the most iconic movements in R&B. You’ll use chord planing and a ii-V-I motion to approach the IV chord with soulful momentum.
Day 7. Tonicizing the vi
To finish the class, you’ll add an altered dominant chord that leads back to the vi chord. You’ll practice richer voicings, rootless shapes, and tasty inversions.
Performances
Now that you’ve worked through the core sounds of R&B harmony, it’s time to use them in full performance pieces. You’ll play two original Rob Araujo compositions that combine suspended dominants, chord planing, altered dominants, rich voicings, and smooth melodic ideas.
REAL students
Don’t take our word for it, take theirs
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Your Instructor
Rob Araujo
Rob is an LA-based pianist, producer, and the Piano Education Lead at Pickup. Through his lessons, you'll master the harmonic vocabulary and techniques behind modern jazz and R&B piano.
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