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Easy Music Theory
Suspended Chords Primer
For complete information on this article, read the October 2002 edition of the newsletter. It's [here].
You know from Lesson 17 that a "triad" is a chord comprised of a root, a third, and a fifth. Example? A C triad is made up of a root (C), a third (E), and a fifth (G):
A suspended chord (or a chord suspension) is usually made by holding one of the tones of a chord a tone higher, then resolving it to its resting place. This can be done with any tones of a chord, but one of the more common suspensions is to manipulate the third of the chord, by first playing the fourth, then resolving it to the third. So a C suspended chord has the tones of the root, the fourth and the fifth:
Play the suspended chord, then follow it with a standard C chord, of the root, the third, and the fifth:
A C suspended chord of this type is often shown in chord charts as either a "Csus", or a "C sus4". "Sus4" means that the third is initially played as a fourth, then resolved to a third.
In "real music", let's suppose you're playing a simple tune which uses three chords, C, F, and G, then returning to C. Try adding a little flavor to the mix: turn that final chord into two chords. Make it a suspended C chord, followed by a C chord.. Your chord progression would look like this: C - F - G - Csus - C. You can try this on a guitar or a piano.
Experiment with other suspended chords. Put them in places where you need a bit of emotion in your music. Might be just what you're looking for. Take a Christmas carol book (one that has chord symbols in it is good for this purpose), and try adding suspensions to dominant or tonic triads. Don't know what tonic or dominant triads are? Check out Easy Music Theory lesson 15.
One more thing about suspensions... of a "technical" nature: a suspended tone must exist in the chord previous to the suspended chord. So if you are playing a Csus, the 'F' is the suspended tone, and should exist in the chord before (like a Bb chord, for example, which uses an F, or a G7 chord, which also uses an F.) Try playing these three chords, and you'll see what I mean: G7 - Csus - C.
To finish off, here is an example of a melody that has the fourth (the suspended tone) in the top voice:
And here is a melody that has the suspended tone in an inner voice:
Alright, now that you've had the primer, go try this month's contest! The October Easy Music Mix contest is all about suspended chords.
©2002 Spring Day Music. All rights reserved Gary Ewer's Easy Music Theory is a trade mark of Spring Day Music, a div. of Corporate Impact Inc. Contact us at emtinfo@EasyMusicTheory.com
