These Chords Are Sus... Sus chords explained

these chords are sus so are these ones and even this one what is a sus chord and what does it mean let's tackle that right now sus in the case of chords means suspended why does it mean suspended well because we generally look at chords and say that they are either settled or they're not that feels pretty settled whereas that one feels like a big fat question mark almost always when we're looking at chords there's one very important piece of information that our ears are searching for and that is quality what is quality quality refers to either minor or major the quality of the chord is either minor or it's major but sometimes that's not actually the case what if we don't have either the minor or the major third in the chord after all we know that that is the note that we look to to tell us whether a chord is minor or major if that third isn't even in the chord what on earth do we call it we don't have enough information to tell whether the quality is minor or major so we have to come up with some other way to call it something that we can identify and utilize enter the suspended chord usually notated as sus 4 or sus2 in both cases the sus also stands for suspended why is it suspended let's take a look at both of them now the first one you're going to see and possibly the more common one is sus4 what does this mean it means that rather than having a minor third or a major third we're gonna have a fourth instead so so an f major chord right here what are we going to do we're actually going to take this major third and we're going to substitute it for the fourth now we don't have a third inside of this chord and there's nothing to tell us whether it's minor or major and we're sort of led to this sort of we're kind of waiting to see what happens to it we're we're waiting we're being held in in suspense suspended that's all it is it literally just means it's a suspended resolution it's not doesn't feel totally at home it doesn't feel resolved yet so we have to wait in order to find out what on earth the quality of this court is going to be so we don't know if it's going to go we don't know if it's going to go to minor or maybe it goes it could go to major in fact bach was very well known for utilizing this as a tool at the end of many of his preludes and fugues we would have what's called a pickerty third like at the end of the c minor prelude the whole thing we're setting up in this c minor sound and at the very end [Music] check out the two notes ahead of that resolution to c major look at that we have the fourth and the second before resolving to the third and as we said at the beginning sus can come in four or sus two sus two would refer to instead of using the third using the two so we have sus4 and sus two and both of them are suspended because we don't know where they're going to resolve to or [Music] could be either one same from the fourth or so because we're not sure where it's going to land that's why we call it suspended now the cool thing about susscores is that you can build them into all kinds of different things for example that's a sus chord that's a sus chord that's a sus chord as well all of these different things particularly once we start adding other notes to it we get into chords that we might start calling sus7 chords so in the world of jazz if i see like a c7 sus chord that tells me that i'm gonna play i'm gonna have the flat seven in there but i'm not defining whether the chord is a minor seventh or a dominant seventh it's suspended so i'm i'm gonna use one of the suspensions sometimes it might specify exactly which but sometimes it might just be in general it's a suspended chord in which case you can use the second or the fourth and the second right and that creates a really really cool sound in context you'll find that the suspended sound makes so much sense and it's a sound that you've heard time and time and time again let's let's hear that c7 sus sound says apply to a lot of uh to to sort of like a chord sequence that would that would utilize that here how it is very very effective at resolving it almost functions the same as a five chord if it was not suspended so that's just a regular dominant chord that functions as a five chord leading us home right but the second we get rid of that third the whole thing sounds a little bit less compelling this motion it's very very strong it kind of it has to be resolved that's why it's a dominant chord it has to resolve to that whether it's doesn't matter if it's major or minor it's asking to be resolved but when we throw that suspension in there it it's a little more up in the air it's we're a little bit not as sure of how it feels you know and it almost this is kind of a nicer chord to just sit there on its own and it still resolves very well but it has a little more of maybe what you might consider to be a more modern sound [Music] and oftentimes suspended chords are thought of as not being able to be used just sitting there on their own because they have such a suspension they feel like they need to resolve somewhere but that's not even entirely true and herbie hancock proved that to us all by writing the tune maiden voyage i mean this is a tune that pretty much exclusively exists in suspended chords you guys want to support the channel absolute best way that you can do that is by purchasing something over on the cornell music academy it's a platform that i'm working to build over time that's going to contain tons and tons of courses on all things music currently we have three full completed courses that are packed with information that you can go and check out right now if you're looking to start learning the piano we have a full huge 170 plus video intro to piano course with tons of actionable steps and examples and things for you to practice everything is incredibly clear all the information is delivered with great visuals and i've had a team that's helped me put this together and they just absolutely did a 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Channel: Charles Cornell

Views: 196,453

Keywords: Charles, Charles Cornell, Charles Cornell Studios, Studios, Cornell, Piano, Piano Covers, Piano guy, piano lesson, jazz, jazz lesson, music theory, sus chords, sus, music lesson, jazz theory, jazz chords, jazz chords piano, jazz piano

Id: X3uYKtkxp-M

Length: 8min 27sec (507 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 30 2021