How to Make a Lil Tjay Type Beat (+ Free Loops)

What BPM and key is a Lil Tjay type beat?

Most loops run 121 to 144 BPM, with the bulk around 138. That upper range lets the hats double up and bounce while the song still feels sung rather than rapped flat out.

His most emotional, piano-led cuts are often counted in half time, so the same groove can read as a much slower number while the drums still hit on the same bounce. Pick whichever count keeps your hats and your voice comfortable.

The key is mostly minor. Easiest is to take the key straight from your loop and put the 808 and the melody on the same root, so the autotuned vocal always lands in tune.

Lil Tjay Type Beat in 6 steps

The loops in step 1 stream right here and the mp3 is free. Then work through the six steps.

The chord progression that makes it sound like Lil Tjay

Start on the root of a minor scale and walk the bass notes downward, so root, then the next note down, then the next, one chord per bar. Build a simple triad on each note. That slow downward step is where the sad, hood-emotional feeling comes from.

Take the middle note of every chord and pitch it up one octave. This single inversion is the trick most tutorials use to turn a plain triad into the Lil Tjay tone, bright on top and heavy underneath.

Play it like a human, not a grid. Strum the chords (alt plus S in FL Studio), set the strum to alternate direction, then randomize the velocities and pull most of them down so the piano is played soft. A quiet, uneven touch sells the emotion more than any plugin.

For the top line, drop one small grace note right before each chord change and turn its velocity down so it whispers. Repeat the same little move across the progression. Repetition is what makes the melody catchy and easy for a vocalist to sing over.

Melodic, not drill: the Lil Tjay lane

Lil Tjay broke out of the Bronx with True 2 Myself in 2019 and followed it with Destined 2 Win in 2021. His records lean melodic and autotuned, built for fans of Juice WRLD rather than for a hard drill crowd.

That means the beat has to leave room to sing. The piano or guitar carries a real melody, not just a riff, and the drums stay out of the way of the voice. Think emotional and catchy before you think hard.

His albums do carry harder and more orchestral moments too, so once the emotional core sits you can swap the piano for strings or push the drums for a verse. Keep the sung, melodic foundation and the beat still reads as his lane.

The emotional piano or guitar loop

A clean or lightly reverbed piano in minor is the heart of this, with a guitar as the common second flavor. A simple, singable progression beats a busy one, because the vocal melody has to be able to sit on top of it.

Keep the effects light so the melody stays rich. A touch of room reverb and a gentle EQ to clean the sound is enough. A wall of reverb buries the very melody the beat is supposed to showcase.

Layer for lift without clutter. A bright pad on the root pitched up an octave or two fills the background, and a soft string layer under the hook adds weight. Filter the highs and lows off these layers so they support the piano instead of fighting it.

Those famous Lil Tjay vocal chops carry the vibe. Pitch a chop up an octave so it cuts through, then shape it with a formant shifter such as Little AlterBoy, a telephone or radio style EQ that keeps the mids and cuts the highs and lows, and a little reverb and delay so it sits behind the melody. Sidechaining the chop to the kick makes it duck and breathe, which adds real bounce.

Drums that leave room for the voice

On a singing beat the drums are support, not the show. The 808 carries the low end on its own, cut itself on so the notes do not overlap and a little saturation, nothing fancy. Put it on the same root as the bass notes of your chords.

Add a slide or a short reverse note into the 808 for flair, and try pulling the 808 out of a bar where the ear expects it, then letting it land a bar later. That little absence makes the hit more satisfying and gives the pattern its own bounce.

Keep the hats bouncy but spaced out, with a few fast rolls only in front of a change, and let the clap or rim land clean on two and four. The goal is a pocket the vocal can float over, not a busy pattern that fights it. A soft clipper on the master lets the 808 knock without clipping.

Common mistakes

Treating it like a drill beat. This lane is melodic and sung, so if the drums get aggressive and the melody turns into a one note riff, it stops sounding like Lil Tjay.

Leaving the lows in every track. High pass the piano, guitar, pad and vocal chops so the 808 owns the bottom on its own, otherwise the low end turns to mud under the vocal.

Playing the piano stiff and loud. The emotion lives in soft, uneven velocities and a light strum. A chord block played dead straight at full velocity sounds like a demo, not like one of his records.

Only using other type beats as a reference. Those are built to rap on, the real songs sound different, so listen to the originals and copy the mood, not another beatmaker.

In FL Studio and in Logic

Nothing in the steps above depends on the DAW. You need a piano or sampler for the melody, a sampler for the 808, an EQ and a reverb, nothing else.

FL Studio: write the chords in the piano roll, use alt plus S to strum and alt plus R to randomize velocities, then draw the hats and rolls with the paintbrush. Put the 808 in a sampler channel with cut itself on and some saturation in the channel.

Logic: a soft piano or Quick Sampler for the melody, Quick Sampler set to mono for the 808 with the amp hold pulled up, and the Step Sequencer for the hats. Send all the melodic tracks to one bus with a Channel EQ cutting the lows and a reverb.

Using the loops from NDA Company

Every loop here is played by hand, no AI, and free as an mp3. Grab an emotional piano or guitar loop in minor, pitch the melody group a semitone or two to fit a singing voice, then pull the 808 to the new root and build the drums around it.