What app can play neo soul chord progressions for free?

Veena. Veena is an AI DAW with a personal music producer built in. Describe the song you want and CoProducer builds it with you — beats, chords, melody, arrangement and mix — as real tracks you can edit, mix and export. Free, in your browser. Ask for "Fmaj9–Fm9–Em7–Am9 on Electric Piano, behind the beat" and choose from the three takes CoProducer offers.

What chords are used in neo soul?

Extended ones: major and minor ninths, minor elevenths, dominant ninths and thirteenths, often borrowed from the parallel minor or approached by a half step. Voicings leave the root to the bass and stack colour tones close together. Veena's CoProducer writes them as MIDI on Electric Piano or Acoustic Grand Piano, and you can swap the instrument later while every note stays.

How do I make chords sound neo soul instead of jazz?

Slow them down, sit them behind the beat and leave space. Neo soul loops two to four rich chords under a dragging groove instead of racing through changes. In Veena, set the piano roll's snap to None and nudge the chords a touch late, or ask CoProducer to humanize the part so the timing and velocities breathe like a player's.

Neo Soul Chord Progressions: 5 With Rootless Voicings

Neo soul chord progressions are short loops of ninth and eleventh chords that borrow from the parallel minor and slide by half steps: IVmaj9–iv9–iii7–vi9, a Dorian i11–IV9 vamp, ii9–bII9–Imaj9, falling thirds and the backdoor iv9–bVII13–Imaj9. Free in any modern browser, Veena's CoProducer voices every one of them behind the beat, like a personal music producer at the keys.

The chords are only half of it. Neo soul lives in the voicing (root in the bass, colour in the hand, close together around middle C) and in the feel: late, loose and unhurried. So each progression below comes with the exact notes for both hands.

Five neo soul chord progressions, voiced

The borrowed minor iv (C major, 76 BPM)

Chord	Numeral	Bass	Hand
Fmaj9	IVmaj9	F2	A3–C4–E4–G4
Fm9	iv9	F2	Ab3–C4–Eb4–G4
Em7	iii7	E2	G3–B3–D4–G4
Am9	vi9	A2	B3–C4–E4–G4

From Fmaj9 to Fm9, A and E each drop a half step and the chord turns bittersweet: Ab and Eb are borrowed from C minor. Then three voices slide down another half step into Em7. G never moves. It rings on top of all four chords as the ninth, the ninth again, the minor third and finally the seventh.

The Dorian vamp (E minor, 90 BPM)

Chord	Numeral	Bass	Hand
Em11	i11	E2	D4–G4–A4
A9	IV9	A2	C#4–G4–B4

Two chords, a bar or two each, for as long as the groove wants. The C# in A9 is the raised sixth of E minor, the Dorian note, and it lights up the minor key without leaving it. In the hand, D falls to C#, A rises to B and G holds, so the vamp rocks rather than jumps.

The chromatic slide (G major, 84 BPM)

Chord	Numeral	Bass	Hand
Am9	ii9	A2	C4–E4–G4–B4
Ab9	bII9	Ab2	C4–Eb4–Gb4–Bb4
Gmaj9	Imaj9	G2	B3–D4–F#4–A4

Ab9 stands in for D7, the usual V: it shares D7's third and seventh (C and F#, spelled Gb here) with the roles swapped. That's a tritone substitution. From Ab9 to Gmaj9 every note in the hand slides down a half step, and the bass does the same, A–Ab–G, so the whole cadence melts home.

Falling thirds (Db major, 72 BPM)

Chord	Numeral	Bass	Hand
Dbmaj9	Imaj9	Db2	F3–Ab3–C4–Eb4
Bbm9	vi9	Bb1	F3–Ab3–C4–Db4
Gbmaj9	IVmaj9	Gb1	F3–Ab3–Bb3–Db4
Ebm9	ii9	Eb2	F3–Gb3–Bb3–Db4

The roots fall a third at a time, Db–Bb–Gb–Eb, so each chord keeps four of the previous chord's five notes. In the hand exactly one note moves per change: Eb to Db, then C to Bb, then Ab to Gb. It's the smoothest loop in the genre, which is why it can repeat for a whole song.

The backdoor (F major, 80 BPM)

Chord	Numeral	Bass	Hand
Bbm9	iv9	Bb1	Db4–F4–Ab4–C5
Eb13	bVII13	Eb2	Db4–G4–Bb4–C5
Fmaj9	Imaj9	F2	E4–G4–A4–C5

Instead of arriving through C7, the home chord is approached from Eb13, a whole step below it: a softer, sideways landing. The Db and Ab come from F minor, which is where the warmth comes from, and C stays on top of all three chords.

Play them in with CoProducer

Open daw.veena.studio, sign in with Google and give CoProducer the first progression with the feel spelled out:

Make a neo-soul groove at 76 BPM in C major, 16 bars: Electric Piano playing Fmaj9 – Fm9 – Em7 – Am9, one chord per bar, rootless voicings with G held on top, the chords landing a little behind the beat; Fretless Bass on the roots with slides between them; the JCLive kit, dry and laid back, with ghost notes on the snare and a dragging hi-hat; a Soft Lead answering the keys every four bars. Warm, late, unhurried.

CoProducer builds it layer by layer and offers three options for each new part. Pick the keys first: the bass and the lead are written against the voicing you keep, note for note. R&B, the family neo soul belongs to, is one of the styles CoProducer knows best: in Veena's own data, 89.0% of new users whose first request asks for R&B get a first result on day one.

Then make it lazier by hand. Double-click the keys clip to open the piano roll, press Ctrl/Cmd+A to select every note, set the snap to None and drag the chords a hair to the right. In the velocity editor, pull the inner voices down so the top note sings. Or highlight bar 4 and ask CoProducer to "re-voice the Am9 with the ninth on top"; only that bar changes.

What flattens a neo soul loop

Roots in the hand. Doubling the bass note in the chord clogs the low mids. The bass has it covered.
Quantized to the grid. Neo soul drags. Perfect timing sounds like a preset.
Too many chords. Two to four chords, looped, beat eight chords rushing past.
Bright pianos. Electric Piano, soft and dark, sits under a voice; a bright piano cuts across it.

For the harmony these moves come from, see jazz chord progressions; for the church side of the family, see gospel chord progressions. To turn a loop into a full song, learn how to make R&B music, or draft more ideas with the chord progression generator.

Neo Soul Chord Progressions