What makes a guitar chord suspended

So, what is a "sus chord? In classical music, suspended chords are used to hold back the resolution to the tonic chord. Classical composers carefully setup tension in need of resolution, and just when you think the resolution is about to arrive, they delay it one last time with a suspended chord.

This chord doesn't create much tension on its own. In fact, it's rather consonant sounding. But at the same time, it's not resolved either. It "floats" out there as if needing to be grounded. Instead, the composer uses the sus chord as one of many devices throughout the piece to drive the piece home to the tonic. Much like in classical music, sus chords in jazz delay the resolution of a chord. But, unlike classical music, that chord resolution is not as often the tonic chord.

It's very common, for example, for a sus chord to resolve to a dominant 7th chord. The following example shows a few sus chords resolving to dominant chords, following the circle of 5ths. Don't get too caught up in the voicings used here yet -- we'll get into that in a minute -- but look carefully at what changes between the sus-chord and the dominant 7 that follows.

In each example, there's 1 note that moves, the 4 to the 3. Take a look at the following example of a ii-V progression in C using simple 3-note voicings. In the ii-V in first measure, two notes move at the same time. Sus2 chords follow the same general principle, replacing only the third of a major or minor chord with the second note from the major scale.

Try this method instead: mute that A string, add a finger to the G string second fret, and add a finger to the B string third fret. Did you notice that the E chord does not have a handy sus2 shape? There is one, but it is a completely different chord shape than the E. It can be disorientating for guitarists to understand which scales work with which keys. With this in mind, we created a cheat-sheet; a key and scale-finder that you can use again and again. As we now know, sus chords take away the third and replace it with the fourth or second note of the major scale.

These types of chords add new colour to our major and minor chords, and they also provide us with stepping stones between chords. Suspended chords serve to help us move from one chord to the next. Try This: Play a C major chord, then drop your middle finger on the D string to create a Csus2 chord. From there, shift to a G major chord. Csus2 and G major share the note D, which means that the Csus2 chord will help you transition from C major to G major with ease! Give it a shot!

Pro Tip: Look for similarities in chord structure wherever possible! Many chords share notes and characteristics that make them easier to memorize! How many similarities can you find? Sus chords are commonly used to either delay or replace resolution, the feeling that the song or a section of a song has concluded. The Sus4, or suspend 4th chord, will have the third note of the chord replaced with the fourth note. So the next time you see a sus chord, know that someone decided to transform a major chord into something more interesting.

Try to find these special chords in songs you learn every day, or get back to basics by learning how to play a song using sus chords on Fender Play. And if you're not a member of Fender Play yet, click here for a free trial. Skip to main content. By Nick Stoubis.