E9th Suspended Chords

[Ron Funk]

The easiest way to obtain a Suspended chord at Open position is to include B pedal with any of the standard 3 string grips.

Is there an easy way to obtain a Suspended Chord at Closed or Inverted positions?

Thanks!

[Paul Sutherland]

From the pedals down position slide the bar up one fret as you come off the B pedal and engage the knee lever lowering the Es. If you have the E lower on the left leg that will be hard, but it's not impossible.

[Chris Reesor]

A sus4 is 1-4-5, so at pedals down, open, you need D instead of C#, which is on strings 5 and 10. Just substitute string 9 for 10, or string 2 lowered a half for string 5, and you have it.

In A-F position, you just substitute string 7 for string 8 and string 1 for string 4.

I'll let you do the theory/math. It's good for you.

[Jim Palenscar]

Also- a Gsus4 is a Csus2 at the same fret(3) in the pedals down position for the C by simply engaging the B pedal. IMHO, the Csus2 is a better chameleon chord when you're not sure where the song is going so is a good choice not to get in trouble.

[Rick Schmidt]

Another Csus would be Open {no pedals} at fret One, strings 8,7,5... or 10,8,7 etc

Then to resolve to a Cmaj, just lower your Es to Eb

[Fred Treece]

A pedal + E raise lever, strings 7 and 1 are your suspended 4ths.

[Ron Funk]

Thanks for the above tips.

Ron

[Gary Arnold]

Gsus4 chord: 3rd fret open add B pedal(3B) and at the 10th fret slide down 2 frets and add B pedal (8B) using standard grips "Thus Sayeth Jeff Newman". Hope this helps. It always works for me.

[Dale Rottacker]

The Sus you get at the 3rd fret, using strings 456, or 568 w/B pedal, can also be had at the 6th fret, using strings 567, or 67&10 with the A pedal

[Gary Arnold]

That's good to know tooooooooo

[Ian Rae]

Suspensions often resolve. So to me the sus4 with the B pedal or the E lever is more satisfactory than using strings 7&8 with A&F where you hop strings and don't get the audible PSG-style movement.

So now a question: when we talk of a sus2 is it a lowered 3rd or a raised tonic?

[Bengt Erlandsen]

If the chord is "suspended" then the "3rd" has been replaced by either a "2nd" or a 4th as I "understand" sus voicings.
Root 2nd 5th = sus2
Root 4th 5th = sus4

So..... locate where the "3rd" is, replace that "3rd" with a note either halfstep above (pedal, lever, slant, bend or swap strings) or a wholestep below to acheive the sus sound.

B.Erlandsen
Zumsteel S12extE9

[Charles Kurck]

[Ian Rae]

Everything Bengt says makes perfect sense and Charles's charts are beautiful.

So what do we call it when we resolve

2nd 3rd 5th to root 3rd 5th?

Is that not also a suspended 2nd, albeit of a different kind?

[Bengt Erlandsen]

2nd 3rd 5th to Root 3rd 5th would be be an implied add2 voicing since root isnt included. (hopefully someone plays an low root note to fix/lock those 3 notes in place)

2nd 3rd 5th by itself , with no root might sound to the ear as Root 2nd 4th wanting to resolve to Root 3rd.

Trust the ear more than anything else and it will be all ok. If the note you are hearing is a 2nd, then it will behave differently than if the exact same note is a 4th.

The absolute correct terminology(if there is such a thing) for all the different voicings is not common understanding to all, and there is guaranteed to be a lot of misunderstandings.

Charles's chart is crystal clear tho

Bengt Erlandsen

[Henry Brooks]

Sometimes a 2 chord, C2 for example,is not Sus chords but a add 9, CEGD not CDG. Contemporary Christian music uses a lot of Sus chords. The 5 chord is generally a Sus 4 the other will be Sus 2's or minors. Also there are Sus seventh or nine chords C7 Sus or C9 Sus. By the way the C pedal by it's self makes. a C# Sus 4 or a F# Sus 2.
Henry

[Fred Treece]

Everything Bengt says makes perfect sense and Charles's charts are beautiful.

So what do we call it when we resolve

2nd 3rd 5th to root 3rd 5th?

Is that not also a suspended 2nd, albeit of a different kind?

“Suspended” is the term used when the 3rd is removed. 2-3-5 is not a sus chord. It is a rootless voicing. If you want to chart your chord so the player knows to omit the root, it needs to be indicated with something like C2(no root).

[Ian Rae]

I'm away from the computer but when I get back I will illustrate my question. When I suggested that a suspended second might resolve downwards I was not assuming that the chord was in root position.

[Fred Treece]

There is 2-3-5 of the chord and 2-3-5 of the key. They are the same only if we are talking about the tonic chord.

2-3-5 of the key could also be 1-2-4 of the ii, 5-6-1 of the V, b7-1-b3 of iii, etc. It is an ambiguously voiced fragment no matter what you call it. It doesn’t even ask to be resolved like sus chords often do, and it sounds pretty good just left hanging over any of those chords.

[Britt Newsome]

Gsus4 chord: 3rd fret open add B pedal(3B) and at the 10th fret slide down 2 frets and add B pedal (8B) using standard grips "Thus Sayeth Jeff Newman". Hope this helps. It always works for me.

Old post, I know, but I am looking into Sus chord voicings and was thinking about this one. This seems to me to be a Gsus 4 add flat 7 with the F on the 3rd and 6th string being the flat 7. Am I off base here or making sense?

[Fred Treece]

Gsus4 chord: 3rd fret open add B pedal(3B) and at the 10th fret slide down 2 frets and add B pedal (8B) using standard grips "Thus Sayeth Jeff Newman". Hope this helps. It always works for me.

Old post, I know, but I am looking into Sus chord voicings and was thinking about this one. This seems to me to be a Gsus 4 add flat 7 with the F on the 3rd and 6th string being the flat 7. Am I off base here or making sense?

If you are referring to the second chord in Gary’s post, you are correct. It’s G7sus4. So sayeth me.

[Dale Rivard]

As Henry Brooks mentioned, My favourite way to play a suspended chord is with the C pedal. 3 frets up from the open position. Normally just on strings 3, 4 & 5 or 4, 5 & 6 but I raise my 8th string as well on the C pedal. So, I'm able to get a lower register on strings 5, 6 & 8 too. It's a cool voicing.