We have already learned that a suspended chord is the one that does not have the third, that is, it cannot be classified as a major or minor chord. If you want to learn more about playing suspended chords as ornamentation, then GT has tutorials covering that topic in greater detail & depth. Is the simple or obvious use: V, Sus I, I. A suspended chord takes away the third, whether a major or minor and replaces it with a fourth, most commonly, or sometimes a second. It will then resolve to the 'right' note. Another way to think about forming suspended chords is by using half steps. It has been included to give context to the shapes above if you are not … This is mainly due to the fact that the tritone of the G7 chord disappeared when we removed its third (it was formed by the F and B notes, but now we removed the B); therefore, the G7 chord decharacterized its dominant function by becoming suspended (G7sus). But, you can easily add and use suspended chords in traditional jazz standards. Their dissonance will mark a part in the song that you know is a chord change, helping you find your place. But suspended chords offer more than just being a little frilly something to add to your music. Would love anyone’s view on where these sus chords sit in the scheme of the key/progression. They work as interesting substitution chords, they can smooth out chord progressions, and they can add unexpected tension to your music. Spice up your musical arrangements with substitution chords About 30 seconds after learning how to play a D chord on a guitar, most beginners are likely to discover the joy of adding their pinky finger to the third fret of that high E string, thus creating a Dsus4. Later, I'll show you how to use the symmetry of augmented chords to play them anywhere on the neck. © 2019 Disc Makers Blog. If you were to refuse to resolve that chord, you leave people hanging. So, for example, rather than use the progression C, G, C, a composer might want to hold on to the tension a little longer and linger on that C note, using this progression: C, Csus2, G, C. This might be voiced: C-E-G, C-D-G, B-D-G, C-E-G. We will start with a common suspended chord format: the V7sus4 chord. Great, then it is explained: the G7sus4 chord has no tritone and has many notes in common with the Dm7 chord. Your email address will not be published. Potentially it’s just any of the 6 main chords in a key could be suspended, I suppose! An Exercise With the Suspended Chords in A Major. This type of chord, known as dominant with a suspended fourth, usually appears replacing the second degree. The lush world of eleventh chords His new audiobook, Rivals! This is ONE of the things that can be happening when a 'sus2' or 'sus4' chord occurs. A chord is called suspended (sus for short) when it has no interval of a third in it. If you are using the correct fingerings you just have to lift one finger or add a finger depending on the chord (see easy chordsfor diagrams). Known as ‘sus’ chords for short, they can be particularly effective in adding a melodic structure to a chord progression. And about a millisecond after that, they discover that vacillating between a D, Dsus4, and Dsus2 is a lot of fun. Just add a seventh note and you’ve got a fresh approach to a dominant chord. As I mentioned above, simply alternating between suspended chords and major or minor chords can be a pretty fulfilling chord progression. They are very commonly used, and once you learn them, you will start to hear them being used when you listen to music, because the sound is quite distinctive. Since the difference lies in the 3rd, the fingerings for the majority of suspended chords can be easily derived from your basic chords by rearranging your fingers in the major chord shapes. First up is the Zombies, who used them all the time. So, we need to add this extension, forming the G7sus4(b9) chord. Suspended 7 – Drop 2 Chords . When you hit them with that next suspended chord, Spice up your musical arrangements with substitution chords, Fifth time’s the charm: The Carpenter’s smash hit, “Close to You”, You can’t make money if you can’t take money: How to take payments as a musician, Word-of-mouth marketing: What it is, and how to generate it, 10 marketing mistakes independent musicians make. (Fifth, sus one, one) a pretty common use? Suspended chords are not commonly used like major and minor chords, however, they still have their place in chord progressions and I’ll be showing you all that in this lesson. The I chord, IV chord or V chord in a major progression. Attention : It is important for me to say that we’ll be dealing specifically with suspended dominant chords – not suspended triads. There are lots of theories about what makes you like your favourite songs. Suspended chords can often be part of a larger type of chord. The formula for a sus2 chord is R + 2HS + 5HS (root plus 2 half steps plus 5 half steps). I’m wondering if some chords in a progression are more “suspendable”, as in what chords in a progression are most often suspended? A very typical chord progression for Synthwave music is the I-VI-IV-V (or a 1-6-4-5). Why do birds suddenly appear. So, a C7sus4 would be voiced: C-F-G-Bb. Another thing we’ve seen is that a chord with a fourth (tension note) usually appears as 4sus, as the fourth ends up replacing the third. Suspended 2nd Variant. Like a 7th or even a 9th chord. Sometimes, one chord is all you need In “Care of Cell 44,” they use parallel suspended 4th chords (Bbsus4 to Asus4), which you first hear during the phrase “while you are far away” (0:13). The lack of a minor or a major third in the chord creates an open sound, while the dissonance between the fourth and fifth or second and root creates tension. Learn Piano Level 9-Learn to use Suspended Chords Substitution into Away In A Manger & Slash Chord Trick to Suspended Chords. Frenemies Who Changed the World, has been described as “drunk history for middle-grade kids” and is available on Audible. This is a great way to add variety and motion to basic open chords as musical ornamentation. If you play those two chords and try to sing along —, — you’ll notice how harsh the progression seems. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. a little frilly something to add to your music. Suspended chords are also excellent substitutes for power chords as well, and can add a lot of flavor to a bland riff that mainly uses power chords. This can add urgency to your music without including chords that people might feel are “unpleasant.”. The Mamas & Papas were famous for unresolved sus4 chords, which they often held to build the tension at the end of phrases. I’m talking about delaying the feeling of resolution when the chord progression rests on stable harmony. “Cold as Ice,” by Foreigner, alternates between suspended and minor chords (Ebsus4 to Eb minor). The chords that come before and after your suspended chord will usually determine which it actually is. Composers grew bored of endless, pure chords and wanted to … Required fields are marked *. Just add a seventh note and you’ve got a fresh approach to a dominant chord. Suspended chords can be expanded beyond simple triads. For variation, you can also play the augmented chord with a suspended 2nd (sus2). The most common use of suspended chords is using a sus4 chord and resolving it to its major counterpart (Csus4 - C or Fsus4 - F etc.) It is the most common suspended chord and if you see a chord notated as simply "sus" then it's implying the sus4 chord.If you're familiar with the number system, you know the 4th tone of a chord … I too have found sus4 and sus2 chords very useful in my own songwriting. When we suspend the relative minor, we feel an interesting impact, because the sensation of “minor chord” is very necessary in this chord, after all it is in this format that it has a lot of affinity with the main tonic (1st degree). The next thing they’re likely to learn is that by removing all fingers from that E string, they can play a Dsus2 chord. The 4th tone of the chord clashes heavily to the chord. Suspended chords sound like their name. Sometimes when we listen to musicians playing a musical arrangement, we here an open sound that creates tension that want to resolve quickly to a stable sound, you can be sure that they are suspended chord sounds created by the 4th tone of the chord. Chords made by stacking 3rds are called tertian chords, and Suspended chords are non-tertian. Related Posts For example, this progression: People want that initial Gsus4 chord to resolve, and when it does, it’s very pleasing. In a 'prepared suspension' this note would have occurred in the previous chord. Your email address will not be published. And because the suspended note in this type of chord is the fourth above the root, this type of triad is called a suspended fourth. Let’s start with the practical things: here are some shapes you may use to play suspended second chords. For example, replace a G chord with a Gsus4: C, Am, F, Gsus4, C. Suspended chords can be expanded beyond simple triads. “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Maybe the most famous use of a 7sus4 chord is in “Hey Jude.” You can hear a C7sus4 briefly on the word “song” in the first verse. They can be used as chord in their own right, or can be used to embellish a chord sequence. Here, suspending that note adds a yearning tension. This is important because the third tells us if a chord is major or minor. As a result, you are more likely to encounter suspended chords in post-bop compositions by jazz musicians rather than in Broadway standards. They are actually great chords to find when learning a new song because they are so distinct sounding. All shapes are movable, and as you can see the first two are just modified power chords. A suspension occurs when one note of a chord (typically the third in triad-based harmony) is replaced by the note one step lower or higher. So what Bacharach and David do instead is to suspend the E from that C major chord over to the next chord —, Cadd9     Bsus4     B In this context, the sixth degree is the relative minor. “Pinball Wizard,” by the Who, is a famous example of suspended chords alternating with major chords. The chord progression over the melody essentially goes from C (technically, Cadd9) to B. We build them the same way we build sevenths: C-F-G-Bb-D. Once you start getting into these extended chords, however, they start to lose their identity as suspended chords and start to sound more like eleventh chords. Suspended 7th. (P.S. Pants series of graphic novels for kids. It looks to me like the major I chord appears a bit, which would make sense as we’re suspending the resolution. For example, starting on the note G, a typical G Maj chord would be G – B – D. However, we have not yet talked about the application of this type of chord, since we needed a theoretical base for this. A suspended chord (or sus chord) is a musical chord in which the (major or minor) third is omitted and replaced with a perfect fourth or, less commonly, a major second. D-String . But the question still remains, “when do you use suspended chords?”. Suspended chords have a rich tradition as jazz chords, and can be found in a phenomenal number of jazz recordings from the 50s and 60s up to modern day. A sus4 chord is a suspended chord in which you suspend the 3rd tone and play the 4th. The awesome power of power chords. Substituting a suspended chord for a major chord — and not resolving it — is a neat trick that can make a mundane progression sound fresh. (What’s more, the very next chord is a B minor, so that suspension highlights some nice chromatic movement, E to D# to D.), Although few would classify suspended chords as especially dissonant, they certainly feel unresolved, and people really want them to resolve. ©2014-2021 All Rights Reserved - Simplifying Theory. Now that you know how to use suspended chords you will jump at the chance to play the next song you see them in. So now that we’ve looked into this chord type hopefully you have a better understanding of when to use suspended chords in your songwriting. In classical compositions, a suspended chord features a note that is held over, or suspended, from the previous chord. Scott can be reached at storybookediting@gmail.com. Dominant suspended chords. Match that emotion with your lyrics and you can create something very powerful. Brilliant article and analysis pointing to some tunes we all know and love. A-String . A suspended 7th chord, for example Csus7 or Bbsus7, uses the formula of the suspended chord and adds the … That’s how sus4 chords and sus2 chords exist! We can think of using it as a second degree when the intention is to keep the bass stationary (pedal point) in a II – V cadence. ** Go to my Esus Guitar Chord for Esus4 guitar chords. Rock on! You can hear a gear 9sus4 chord at the end of the phrase “mellow as the month of May” (at 0:30) in this great Carol King hit. You often hear dominant 9sus4 chords in jazz. The origin of suspended chords was the 16th century Renaissance period, no less. For the main lesson content Mike shows you how to use suspended chords to add a little spice to your strumming. You may see “Free Fallin’” notated as using a Csus4 chord instead of Fsus2, though they are in fact the same chord: Csus4=C-F-G, Fsus2=F-G-C.). Suspended chords are particularly important in jazz music, and they were especially important in the late 1960s, when they were used to build independent sonorities in modal jazz styles by musicians such as Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner. This trick can also be used to smooth out progressions that might otherwise feel awkward. For example, the suspended fourth and second chords built on C (C–E–G), written as C and C , have pitch… Here is a chord diagram of the symbols I use in my chord blocks: The suspended fourth is by far the most commonly used. A suspended chord is neither major nor minor because the third has been replaced with either a fourth or a second. We’ve lumped all these together because it would take too long to explain … Other Types of Suspended Chords. Now that we are more advanced, we will see the most common cases where these chords appear. Replacing the relative minor chord Another very common use for the suspended chord is over the sixth degree chord of the major key. In this context, the sixth degree is the relative minor. E-String . Notice how this replacement looks: Great, this was a possible application for the suspended chord (replacing the second degree). — and suddenly the progression feels great. This is because suspended chords are unstable, and the music will sound incomplete until a suspended chord at the end of a piece of music is resolved.