Sus Chords

[bunmiadefisayo]

hello all, i was hoping someone would be able to explain teh basic theory behind sus chords and what they are used for. Alls i know is they sound good, especially if i follow them up with a maj7 chord ( i played Cmaj7, A7sus4 and it sounded pretty good). Also what kind of scales do they go with?

if any part of the question doesnt make sense please let me know. I dont know how else to phrase my question.

thanks

[aschleman]

The "sus" means suspended. A major or minor chord has a third (either a major third, or a minor third). The third note is generally the note that gives the chord it's character... The suspended 4th chords do not have a third note, instead they have a 4th. Sus2 is the same thing except you have a 2nd instead of a 4th... Hope that helps you out some. Generally I use them as what I call "passing" chords. In a progression I will throw a few in to add some charcter to the progression... I don't usually base a song around suspended chords. I'm sure you could if you wanted to though.

[bunmiadefisayo]

yeah thanks a lot, now i understand a bit better. I just wanted to know how exactly they are used in chordal progressions.

[Akira]

Sus2 chords sound awesome as part of a heavy riff.

How you use them is really up to you though, just have to experiment I guess.

[Portis_26]

this might be a stupid question, but is Em and Esus the same thing?

[crazywolf]

this might be a stupid question, but is Em and Esus the same thing?
No it is not. In an E chord, you play the 1 3 and 5 notes in the E maj scale. An Em chord is the 1 3 5 of the Em scale, only the third is a different note.
Sus chords are neither major or minor, they are neutral. This neutrality gives the suspended chords a feeling of tension. The amount of tension depends on whether it is a sus2, sus4, dominant seventh sus4, etc...

[Akira]

Em is "E minor", this is built up of (when speaking scale degrees) I, flat III, & V.

The scale of E looks like this: A, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#

So we take the first, thrid, and fifth note (A, G#, B), flatten the third so instead of G# it becomes G, and there you have it, A, G, B - the chord of E minor.

If you don't flatten the third the chord becomes E major.

To work out other minor chords just do the same thing with other scales, take the first note, flatten the third, and take the fifth note from the scale.

So for working out G minor, work out the scale of G which would be: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#. The notes needed to make the chord of G minor would be G, A# (remember flatten the third for minor chords) and D.

To work out your scales, a good thing to remember is T T S T T T S. The T stands for "tone" and the S stands for "semi-tone". When you move up a semi-tone from for example A, you move to A#, if you move down a semi-tone, from A, you move to G#. If you move a tone from A, you move to B, down, you move to G. In other words when moving a semi-tone you move up or down one fret, when moving a tone, you move up or down 2 frets.

So lets take for example the scale of C major (because it's the easiest in that it has no sharps or flats):

...T..T...S...T...T...T...S
C...D...E...F...G...A...B -> C (Ignore the dots, it's just for spacing.)

See how it works? Apply that to others, like for example the scale of E.

Here's an important note, there are no sharps or flats between B & C, and between E & F.

So the scale of E, looks like:

...T.....T.....S...T...T.....T.....S
E....F#....G#..A...B....C#...D# -> E

If we add scale degrees to this:

...T.....T.....S...T...T.....T.....S
E....F#....G#..A...B....C#...D# -> E
I....II......III...IV..V....VI....VII -> I

Remember roman numerals? Incase you're a bit rusty:

I = 1
II = 2
III = 3
IV = 4
V = 5
VI = 6
VII = 7

Using the numerals allows you to work out other chords more easily. But I wont go into any more detail, I think i've explained quite alot already. I apologise in advance if you a.) already know this, or b.) don't understand this (only just got up, and sometimes the way I explain things is hard to understand :p ).

Any problems, just ask, hope that helps in some way.

[amos02]

Hi. Wot do you play if its is just a sus chord not a sus2 or sus4 etc? Is the same as a sus2??

[Akira]

There's no such thing as just a sus chord. I think most of the time when people refer to a sus chord they mean a sus4 chord. Although it may be different from culture to culture.