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Suspensions and "Suspended Chords"

The "sus" in Sus4, Sus2, and Suspended chord, refers to the fact that there is a non-chord tone in dissonance (suspension) against the chord. The note resolves to a chord tone before the next chord. No dissonance, no suspension.

Rather than argue over which voicings are "add" chords and which are "sus" chords, look at the added note. Is it dissonant? If not, then it is an add, not a sus. Does it resolve before the next chord? If yes, then the note was in suspension.

From Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary:
Suspension (suh-SPEN-shun)
In part writing, a suspension is a situation in which a single note of one chord is held over into another chord, thus creating a dissonance, which is resolved by step in the following chord.

From dolmetsch online:
Suspension: a dissonance caused by a note that is held over, that is approached by itself, and resolved to the chord note by a tone or semitone after the chord is played.

Also from dolmetsch online:
Suspended chords: a chord in which the third is replaced or accompanied by either a fourth or a major second, although the fourth is far more common

From Library thinkquest music dictionary:Suspension - The use of a nonharmonic tone to delay the resolution of a chord, frequently as it occurs in a cadence.

From Wikipedia:Suspended chords - A suspended chord is a chord in which the third is replaced or accompanied by either a fourth or a major second, although the fourth is far more common.

This type of sound is borrowed from the contrapuntal technique of suspension, where a note from a previous chord is carried over to the next chord, and then resolved down to the third or tonic, suspending a note from the previous chord. However, in a suspended chord the added tone does not necessarily resolve.

Suspended chords are most commonly found in folk music and popular music.




Here are some excellent books on the subject


Bill Edwards Publishing Complete Fretboard Logic System Box Set (Book/DVD)

Bill Edwards Publishing Complete Fretboard Logic System Box Set (Book/DVD)

The Bill Edwards Publishing Complete Fretboard Logic System Box Set (DVD) gives you the entire Fretboard Logic guitar system at a special package price. Introduces the guitar's unique tuning and basic fretboard patterns; builds on this foundation with chords, scales, and arpeggios; and then allows the player to focus on expressing a chosen style. Includes Fretboard Logic SE and Fretboard Logic III in newly revised editions plus videos I and II in DVD format.


Scale Forms! Learn These!

Major and Minor Pentatonic

Examples of Scale Forms! In TAB!

Using The Scale Forms

Modes! In the same Scale Forms!

Warm-Up patterns

Ear Training Exercise

The Blues Scale and the Major/Minor Scale

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