Below you'll learn how to play 3 different chord progressions featuring delicious jazz-inspired lofi guitar chords. These chord progressions are suitable for anyone who already has a bit of experience with guitar and is comfortable with a varied range of chords and scales.
This post also accompanies a tutorial video on my YouTube channel - scroll down to the end to watch!
Lofi Guitar Chord Progression #1
Our first lofi chord progression is a sweet, warming and fairly easy 4-chord progression in G♯ minor.
Bmaj7 - C♯min7 - G♯min7
Bmaj7 - C♯min7 - G♯m
We’re starting out with a Bmaj7 chord and staying there for one bar:
Next, we’re going up to a C♯min7 chord, which looks like this:
To make the G♯min7, we just move the same shape as our previous chord down to the fourth fret, like so:
The second time we play this chord progression, we take away the 7th note to make a regular G♯m chord:
It all comes together with this simple and relaxed picking pattern:
I especially like to play this chord progression alongside a melody with the G♯ minor pentatonic scale, which you can learn more about here on Applied Guitar Theory.
Lofi Guitar Chord Progression #2
This next lofi chord progression is a little more jazzy and upbeat - a neo-soul inspired sound which is perfect for chillhop or jazzhop.
F♯min7 - G♯min7 - A6sus2 - C♯min7
I quite like to play the first three of these chords with the thumb over the top of the lowest string, which makes it much easier to mute the A string and leaves the first finger free to barre over the other strings.
The second time this progression loops around, I like to swap the C♯min7 for a different voicing with the same shape as the first two chords, sliding into it from the fret below.
Putting it all together and we have this pattern, played with a swung rhythm:
This chord progression is in the key of C♯ minor, and works very nicely with a few different types of minor scales such as the pentatonic and natural minor.
Lofi Guitar Chord Progression #3
This final chord progression is a nice and jazzy 2-5-1 progression in D major, again perfect for chillhop or jazzhop.
Em9 - A13 - Dmaj9 - D6/9
I’m pairing these chords with a groovy rhythm, strum-picking the chord and then alternating between the root note and the rest of the notes. I also palm-mute the strings after each chord to create a percussive feel.
I add a couple decorations: a slide down into the A chord, an extra note before the first D chord and a hammer-on with the pinkie.
Much like the previous one, this pattern is played with a swung rhythm and looks something like this:
I solo-ed over this one with the B natural minor scale, which gives it a bit of a moodier feel compared to the regular pentatonic scale.
That’s all three chord sequences, I hope you enjoyed! Click below to watch the tutorial video which goes along with this post.
