Suspended Chords
A suspended chord is a triad where the 3rd is replaced by another note. In practice the 3rd is replaced either by the 4th or the 2nd. These chords "desire" to resolve into a normal triad. Suspended chords are notated with the symbols "sus4" or "sus2". Where "sus" is found on its own, the suspended fourth chord is implied. This can be combined with any other notation. So for example:
- Csus9
This chord is an extended 9th chord with the 3rd replaced by the 4th (C-F-G-B♭-D). However, the major third can be added as a tension above the 4th to "colorize" the chord (C-F-G-B♭-D-E). A sus4 chord with the added major third (sometimes called a major 10th) can also be quartally voiced as C-F-B♭-E.
Read more about this topic: Chord Names And Symbols (popular Music)
Famous quotes containing the words suspended and/or chords:
“The way in which men cling to old institutions after the life has departed out of them, and out of themselves, reminds me of those monkeys which cling by their tails—aye, whose tails contract about the limbs, even the dead limbs, of the forest, and they hang suspended beyond the hunter’s reach long after they are dead. It is of no use to argue with such men. They have not an apprehensive intellect, but merely, as it were a prehensile tail.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.”
—Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821)