How to Structure Lofi Music

In this article, I will show you how to structure your lofi musiclong.

How to Arrange Lofi Song

Lofi music structure is deceptively simple:

1. Loop
2. Loop with beat
3. Loop without beat (and a slight change)
4. Loop with beat
5. Fade out

Some extra elements can be added, but it is essentially an ABABB structure, or even sometimes an A1A2A1A2A2 structure.

To help you understand lofi music structure, let’s look at some examples.

Come Closer by Marsquake and Sátyr -

Track Analysis

Marsquake is one of my favourite lofi artists and this track, taken from the album Better Together, is a great example of why.

In this example, you can see that the initial guitar loop forms the basis for the entire piece of music. The simplified structure of this track is:

ABABB

The loop forms the intro, underpins the simple lofi beat in the chorus (and the fade out) and is played on a different instrument in the break.

Pine Leaves by Jinsang - Track Analysis

Jinsang is one of the most influential Lofi artists and I think his track, Pine Leaves is an excellent example of why he has had such a big impact.

The thing I love about Jinsang’s music is the use of jazzy lofi chord progressions which gives his tunes an authentic sound.

Again, we are dealing with a straightforward structure that relies on a loop as its foundation.

I know it looks complicated but if you look at the yellow boxes at the top of this image, you can see that it is three sections repeated:

AB-AB-ABC

Both sections A1 and A2 are based on the piano loop and section B is the second half of that loop, with section C being the final section of the loop.

m i s t by Eevee - Track Analysis

Eevee is one of those lofi artists who has carved a unique path for herself.

Her track m i s t samples of a Japanese koto and a Japanese fue ( flute), which immediately gives it a unique sound.

This is perhaps the simplest structure of the tracks so far, essentially:

ABBABBA

As you can hear, the track is structured using the koto progression -intro/break/outro, and when the melody is played using the flute (with the addition of the beat), it is the chorus.

I like how the chorus is repeated twice with a simple stopdown in the middle.

How long should a lofi song be?

As you can see from this popular Lofi beats playlist, Lofi music is often shorter than “standard” song length, often clocking in at anywhere between 1:00 and 2:30, with around two minutes being the most common track length.

The nice thing about lofi is that once you have created/captured a loop, the rest of the track kind of falls into place.

If each section is 20-30 seconds long, you only need about 4-6 sections to make a complete track.

You’re a legend!

Happy composing!Rich