Suspended Chords (Sus chord)

Suspended chords add color to the chord progressions and can even make your rhythm guitar sound like mini melodies when they are used together. If you find yourself getting stuck in a rut in playing only major and minor chords, the sus chords will be a great addition to your chord vocabulary.

Suspended chords can create musical tensions and when used in combination with other chords (typically major chords). They add a creative vibe and dynamic expressive mood to music when appropriately used. I will show you an easy example in this lesson on how to use these sus chords as passing chords in rhythm playing.

Suspended chords are commonly denoted as sus2 or sus4. The suspended chord consists of the root note, 5^th and the 2^nd or 4^th. Typically, the 3^rd note is substituted by the 2^nd or 4^th note. Let’s learn how the suspended chords are derived using C major scale.

We all know that C major consists of the 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th notes of the major scale : C E G

Many of the suspensions for your first chords can be made either by removing or adding another finger to the major chord shape. To get Csus2 chord, we substitute the 3^rd note with a 2^nd note and end up with C, D and G notes. Similarly, the Csus4 chord consists of the notes C, F and G. Its pretty straight forward isn’t it?

Suspended Chords Exercise 1

Play the Amaj chord and you’ll hear a sound that feels resolved. Now, to get the Asus2 chord, play the Amaj chord but without the ring finger on the 2^nd string. If you add your pinky finger to the 3^rd fret of the 2^nd string, you’ll get the Asus4 chords. Notice that the suspended chords sound airy and begs to be resolved? You can add suspended chords in between the strums of a regular major chord as shown below.

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Suspended Chords Exercise 2

Here is another of example of how suspended chords can be used to play very short riffs-like rhythm playing. This is a simplified version of the strumming for Sheryl Crow's Sweet Child O' Mine.

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To conclude, suspended chords can be used as substitutes for major chords to break away from boring chord progressions. The best judgement for the application of suspended chords is to use your ears. If it sounds right, go ahead and use it. If it doesn’t, trust your ears and leave it out. Have fun with improvising.