House music harmony is deceptively simple: usually two to four chords, looped forever. But which extensions you pick and how you rhythm them decides whether the track reads as deep house, piano house, or generic preset demo. Here is the map, subgenre by subgenre.
The universal donor: minor 7th loops
Am7, Dm7 (A, C, E, G and D, F, A, C). Two chords a fourth apart, both minor 7ths, is the most-used harmonic cell in house history. It is modal, it never resolves, and that is why it can loop for six minutes without exhausting anyone. Variant: Am7, Dm7, Em7, Dm7 for a little arc.
Deep house: add the 9
Deep house is the same loops with more expensive chords. Am9 (A, C, E, G, B), Fmaj9 (F, A, C, E, G). Voice them wide, low root plus a spread upper structure, and play them as long sustained pads or as offbeat stabs, depending on energy. A classic deep progression: im9, bVImaj9, bVIImaj9 (Am9, Fmaj9, G9).
Piano house: majors, inversions, stabs
Piano house flips the mood to euphoric. The trick is major chords in inversions so the top note moves like a melody: C/E, F/A, G/B, C. Play them as short offbeat stabs (the classic house rhythm hits the "and" of every beat) with velocity around 100 to 115. Add an octave-doubled root in the left hand and it is 1990 in the best way.
The one-chord groove
A huge amount of classic and tech house sits on a single minor 7th or 9th chord, rhythm-programmed into a groove, while the bassline and filter automation carry all the movement. If your drums and bass are strong, harmonic stillness is a feature: it keeps the floor locked in.
Rhythm rules that matter more than the chords
- Offbeat everything. Chords on the offbeat eighth notes leave beats 1 and 3 for the kick.
- Short releases. Stabs die before the next kick. Sustained chords are for breakdowns.
- Sidechain the pads to the kick even at low ratios: the pump is the genre's heartbeat.
- Keep the loop 4 or 8 bars. House lives on hypnosis, not development.
Start from proven loops
If you would rather begin with progressions already voiced, stabbed, and grooved correctly, House Music Vol.1 covers the deep-to-piano spectrum with files you can audition in the browser on the house collection page. Every file downloads in your working key with the 7-day free trial.
