Lo-fi Chords
Stack one more third on a seventh chord and you get a ninth; one more and you get an eleventh. Build maj9, m9, 9 and m11, hear why chords with no tritone just float, and voice them the way keyboard players do, leaving the root to the bass. Then put them where they live: the lo-fi hip hop sound of jazzy sevenths and ninths, a slow, lazy swing and a softened sound, and the Just the Two of Us loop that never quite lands.
In this lesson you'll
- Build ninth and eleventh chords (maj9, m9, 9, m11) by stacking thirds on a seventh chord: the ninth is the 2nd an octave up, the eleventh the 4th an octave up.
- Voice them softly: leave the root to the bass and drop the fifth, and use the hand-shape trick (Fmaj7 over D = Dm9, Em7 over C = Cmaj9).
- Turn a plain loop into a lo-fi loop with sevenths and ninths, and play the Just the Two of Us loop over a lazy swung kick, snare and hat beat.
Music in this lesson
- Just the Two of UsGrover Washington Jr. ft. Bill Withers · 1981
- lofi hip hop radio – beats to relax/study toLofi Girl · since 2017
Remember
Ninths and elevenths are one or two more thirds on top of a seventh chord; the eleventh suits minor chords, because on a major chord it rubs against the third.
maj9, m9 and m11 contain no tritone, so nothing demands to resolve and the music floats; the dominant 9 keeps its tritone and still pulls.
Lo-fi hip hop combines jazzy sevenths and ninths, progressions that hover without landing, a slow lazy swing (roughly 70–90 BPM) with the drums behind the beat, and a filtered, warm sound.