Sus chords

[Randy S]

Excellent Justin lesson on using Sus chords.

https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/rut-buster-ep-7-sussing-out-rb-007

 

[Rancid Rumpboogie]

Have it stashed in my favorites!

 

[david moon]

Once again I'm kind of amazed that the Anderton guy can't even say what distinguishes a major from minor chord. He can improvise over a progression but has almost zero understanding of theory. Justin is patient and explains things well

The info about sus4 and sus2 is useful. Always replacing the 3.

Also that the sus chords can be used as embellishments and passing tones over major or minor chords

 

[MarkRobbins]

Also that the sus chords can be used as embellishments and passing tones over major or minor chords

I'm still very much a newbie, but I've recently reached the point that I am experimenting with throwing in a couple of beats of a sus when there is a fairly long run of a single chord to break up the monotony. Spices things up a bit.

 

[MarkDyson]

I'm still very much a newbie, but I've recently reached the point that I am experimenting with throwing in a couple of beats of a sus when there is a fairly long run of a single chord to break up the monotony. Spices things up a bit.

Coming from another n00b: right on, brother. That, and tossing in some leading 7 chords to add more interest to an otherwise-vanilla progression. Little stuff like that seems like it can go a long way.

 

[snarf]

Once again I'm kind of amazed that the Anderton guy can't even say what distinguishes a major from minor chord. He can improvise over a progression but has almost zero understanding of theory. Justin is patient and explains things well

The info about sus4 and sus2 is useful. Always replacing the 3.

Also that the sus chords can be used as embellishments and passing tones over major or minor chords

Not only can the Andertons guy improvise over a chord progression, but he generally has some pretty tasty licks. When he's playing with Chappers, I'd rather hear him solo than the guy who's obviously the "better" player.

Now, I haven't watched the video yet (I'm about 10 minutes into it now), so it might actually be answered there, but I have a couple of questions.

• Why, if there are sus2 and sus4 chords, do we guitar players always seem to play a sus4 when we see Xsus written?
• Also, on the sus2 chord, why not just call it a 2? Using A as the example, an Asus2 is just an A2. And, as I think about it, the 4 would be the same. So why muddle them up with the sus designation and just call them a 2 or 4 instead? Or is it because you can also play an A2 with the a 3 in it as well - they're just making sure that you drop the 3?

 

[Randy S]

Not only can the Andertons guy improvise over a chord progression, but he generally has some pretty tasty licks. When he's playing with Chappers, I'd rather hear him solo than the guy who's obviously the "better" player.

Now, I haven't watched the video yet (I'm about 10 minutes into it now), so it might actually be answered there, but I have a couple of questions.

• Why, if there are sus2 and sus4 chords, do we guitar players always seem to play a sus4 when we see Xsus written?
• Also, on the sus2 chord, why not just call it a 2? Using A as the example, an Asus2 is just an A2. And, as I think about it, the 4 would be the same. So why muddle them up with the sus designation and just call them a 2 or 4 instead? Or is it because you can also play an A2 with the a 3 in it as well - they're just making sure that you drop the 3?

I'm no theory guru but I'll take a shot at answers. 2nd question first- from my experience the terminology of XSus2 and just X2 are used interchangeably. On the 1st question- I have always seen the Sus4 designated as a Sus4 not just an XSus but I suppose if you use the X2 terminology then there is no reason to designate the Sus4 as anything other than just XSus. If you keep a 3 in the chord I think technically the right terminology is XAdd9 or X Add11 (or XmAdd9 or XmAdd11).