Suspended 4th Board Lesson
In this lesson we’ll discuss the theory of how to build suspended 4th chords.
In this lesson we’ll discuss the theory of how to build suspended 4th chords.
In this lesson we’ll discuss suspended 9th chords and the theory of how they’re built.
Here’s part four in our little series of learning how to make two guitar parts work together without playing the same thing. In this one, we’re going to focus on sus4 and sus9 chords specifically.
Here’s a followup lesson to to the previous one on sus4 chords, as well as the third in our series of learning how to play with two guitars.
In this lesson we’re going to start taking a look at suspended chords; specifically, the suspended fourths. A suspended fourth is a chord in which we’ve removed the third that is normally found in the chord, and replaced it with a fourth. So your basic chord structure would look like this: I, IV, V. An example would be Gsus4, which would look like this: G (I), C (IV), D (V). Remember, those are the notes in the G chord, not separate chords.
In this lesson we’ll give you a few ideas for how you can use sus9 chords to create cool sounding alternate guitar parts, which are really helpful when you’re playing with another guitar and want to be a bit different.
If you need a refresher on the sus9 chords, you might want to checkout these lessons first:
Here’s the board lesson to go with the sus9 chords practical lesson. In a sus9 chord, you’re replacing the third with a fourth.
There are two different types of suspended chords: sus9 and sus4. If you’re wondering where the “9” comes from, don’t let it throw you off, it is simply the “2” from the scale, but up one octave. For this reason sometimes you’ll see these as sus2 and sometimes you’ll see them as sus9.
After you’ve watched this lesson, you should checkout Colin’s board lesson on the same subject.