Sampling and chords: where lofi harmony comes from and why it never resolves

The chords themselves

Almost all lofi harmony comes from jazz practice, filtered through the soul and hip hop recordings that producers sampled. The characteristic chords are extended: sevenths, ninths, elevenths and thirteenths, plus added sixths. What they share is that none of them is a plain triad, so none of them sounds finished.

Voicing matters as much as chord choice. Lofi voicings tend to be close, in the middle of the keyboard, with the root often absent because the bass is covering it. Rootless voicings are standard jazz piano practice and they leave the harmony ambiguous in a way that suits the genre: a chord without its root can be heard more than one way.

Cycles that go nowhere on purpose

A conventional pop progression sets up a return to the tonic and delivers it. Lofi generally avoids that. Two and four bar loops circle: a minor ninth to a dominant to a major seventh and back around, or a pair of chords a tone apart alternating indefinitely. The tonal centre is often deliberately unclear.

The reason is functional. A strong resolution is a moment. It has a before and an after, and it asks the listener to notice. Music intended to support concentration on something else is better off with no moments in it at all, which is why the genre converged on harmony that keeps promising and never arrives.

This is also, incidentally, why lofi can loop indefinitely without sounding wrong. A progression that never resolves has no natural end, so a two bar loop repeated forty times is not a compromise, it is the intended object.

Sampling: what it brings and what it costs

Sampling remains central to the genre's sound even where no sample is used. Taking a few bars from an old recording brings a great deal with it: the room the original was recorded in, the tape compression, the mastering choices, the noise floor and the small imperfections of the performance. Recreating all of that from scratch is difficult, which is why so many producers who play their own parts then process them to sound sampled.

The legal position is straightforward and frequently ignored. Using a recognisable portion of someone else's recording requires permission from the owner of the recording and, separately, from the owner of the composition. Length is not a defence, and neither is processing. Producers who want to avoid the problem use royalty free sample libraries, play their own parts, or licence properly. This site is not a source of legal advice, and anyone releasing music commercially should take advice specific to their situation and jurisdiction.

The instruments

A small palette recurs constantly.

• Electric piano. The tine based electric piano sound is the default lofi chord instrument, because its bell like attack and quick decay leave space and its harmonic content responds well to filtering and saturation.
• Nylon or hollow body guitar. Used for both chords and short melodic fragments, usually with little sustain.
• Upright bass or a soft electric bass. Round, short, with the attack removed.
• Vibraphone, celesta and music box sounds. Used for the melodic motif, often with the wow described in the tape saturation guide.
• Flute and muted trumpet. Common in jazz leaning material.

How chords are processed

Three moves are near universal. A low pass filter, to remove the top and push the part behind the drums. Saturation, to thicken it and reduce its dynamic range. And a short reverb or a tape delay, to blur the edges between chord changes so the progression flows rather than steps.

A fourth, less universal move is deliberate detuning or pitch modulation, which makes a sampled sounding part feel like it came off a worn cassette. Used lightly this is very effective; used heavily it makes the harmony sour, and the ear notices sour harmony much faster than it notices sour timing.

Melody, or the lack of one

Lofi melodies are usually fragments rather than tunes: three or four notes, repeated, with no particular shape and no cadence. This is consistent with everything else in the genre. A memorable melody is memorable, which means it occupies attention, which is precisely what the music is designed not to do.

The tracks that break this rule tend to be the ones people actually remember, which is a real tension in the genre and not one that has an obvious resolution.

Frequently asked questions

What chords are used in lofi music?

Extended jazz chords: major sevenths, minor ninths, elevenths, thirteenths and added sixths, usually voiced close in the middle register and often without the root, since the bass covers it.

Why do lofi chord progressions never resolve?

Because a resolution is an event that asks the listener to notice it. Music intended to support concentration on something else works better with no such moments, so progressions cycle without arriving.

Is sampling old records legal for lofi tracks?

Using a recognisable portion of someone else's recording requires permission from both the recording owner and the composition owner. Neither short length nor heavy processing is a defence. Anyone releasing commercially should take advice specific to their jurisdiction.

What instrument makes the classic lofi chord sound?

The tine based electric piano is the default, because its bell like attack and quick decay leave space in the mix and its harmonic content responds well to filtering and saturation.