The Suspended 4th Chord
There are situations where the usual major and minor chords are not enough. Luckily there are other types of chords that we can use to break the monotony of the “usual chords”. Today we will talk about suspended fourths (sus4) chords and how to use them to make your songs more interesting. Let’s dive into it.
Some Ways to Play It
As usual, I want you guys to hear the sound of the chords before we go into the theory. So, take up your guitar and try to play these shapes:
The Theory Behind It
Suspended 4th chords work similarly to Suspended 2nd chords. essentially we can take any major or minor triad, eliminate the third and replace it with a fourth, and voila, we have a sus4 chord. Let’s see this in practice.
Example 1: we take a C major chord (C E G) we eliminate the third of the chord (the note E) and we replace it with the fourth (the note F), so Csus4 = C F G. As a general rule, the fourth is always one guitar fret above the major third, so what you have to do on the guitar is to locate the third and raise it by one fret. Look again at the shapes I have shown you above and you will see that this is exactly how I built them.
Example 2: we take an A minor chord (A C E), we eliminate the third (the note C) and we replace it with the fourth (the note D) obtaining an Asus4 = A D E. As a general rule, the fourth is always two guitar frets above the minor third.
Note that the sus4 chord is neither major nor minor (this is why we call it suspended). This means that we can use them to substitute (i.e. in place of) any major or minor chord.
Chord Progressions
A typical move is to play the sus 4 chord just before than the major chord with the same root note. Example: D G Asus4 A D
Another typical way is to alternate between the major chord and the suspended 4th chord with the same root. To hear an example of this, listen to the intro of “Crazy little thing called love” by Queen, where they play D and Dsus4 in rapid succession.
Here is another typical move. This one has ben used by John Lennon at the beginning of “Happy Xmas (War is over)” but also by Rush at the end of the intro of “Closer to the Heart”:
Finally, it is of course possible to use the sus4 chord instead or close by a minor chord with the same root:
Have fun with the sus4 chords!
If you want to know more about the suspended 4th chord, how to use it in chord progressions, how to make it sound together with other chords, then you need to learn more about chords and harmony on guitar. Click the button below to find out how:
