Unlocking the Secrets of Suspended Chords - What You Need to Know

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How do you play a suspended chord and how do you use it in your music? If you are not using sus4 and sus2 chords already you probably should be as it is a vital harmonic tool in the armory of any songwriters, composer or artist. Guy Michelmore explains what they are, how to play them and how to use them in your music.
00:00 Start
05:22 How To Write Trailer Music
07:02 Scoring Sus4
11:16 Scoring Sus2
14:10 Wrap-up
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24 июн 2024

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Комментарии : 130

@woolrich020 Год назад

It's like you've given me new crayons today, thanks Guy! I love the feeling the sus chords give you, it's like they're saying: "All is well. For now."

@whispereddusk Год назад

Guy, you are an endless source of inspiration and joy! Thank you for sharing 🙏

@anthonyramsey89 Год назад

I really enjoy your energy while making/teaching music, it's inspiring. Of course I enjoy the specific content in this video as well - thank you!

@ThinkSpaceEducation Год назад

Youre welcome

@DanIel-fl1vc Год назад

I didn't know this, my usual approach to creating harmonies has been to determine the number of major and minor chords that can be used within the selected scale. These chords are then used as the basis for creating the harmony. Sometimes depending on scale you only got two chords that fit in the scale. Suspended chords gives a lot more options and doesn't sound as sad/happy the other two. Great video.

@PebsBeans 11 месяцев назад

wait till you hear about augmented and dimnished chords too

@DanIel-fl1vc 11 месяцев назад

@@PebsBeans Thank you, evil and mystery chord are also useful!

@johnfinnis8373 11 месяцев назад

See me - I know nothing. No theory, no ability, can't play an instrument... but I know what I like and suspended chords are wondrous. Thanks so much for explaining them in a way which makes sense to a musical numbskull, Guy. I shall henceforth go forth armed with a little more knowledge which could make all the difference in my musical fumbling about. Best channel of its type out there, so thank you for that.

@shubus Год назад

Guy, it's hard to articulate sus chords usage, and you did an excellent job. Am glad to see ThinkSpace is promoting courses rather than degree courses--of which I have enough of already, but still hungry for knowledge.

@andycordy5190 11 месяцев назад

Lovely, direct explanation. Thank you. I've been using suspensions for years, since changing guitar tuning to open G where minor chords are very difficult. Your observations about the difference between perceived moods in sus 4 and sus 2 are spot on. These ambiguities are very useful. However, there are certain composers, particularly in film, who Schmalz their harmony too often with sus chords and you just think "I am being manipulated here" instead of the emotional magic that subtlety can bring.

@stiffiron 11 месяцев назад

Your videos are still a treat, Guy! I still enjoy every one! 🤩

@misslyricalpenny 11 месяцев назад

Wow! I literally just learned so much in the first 30 secs. Didn’t know sus chords were this simple 🤯

@ThinkSpaceEducation Год назад

Just be careful the telegram scammers are out today - I DO NOT DO TELEGRAM SO ITS A SCAM

@FlartusMenix Год назад

Thank you

@paulembleton1733 Год назад

I’ve had one re your channel. Poor show, I had three re Paul David’s channel. As scams go, this one’s easy - you have a channel if you want to do special offers to strangers.

@markhedges1194 8 месяцев назад

Love you description of primary colours! This is what I love about major and minor, their great and powerful simplicity! Thank you for emphasising that Guy!

@peterelfman Год назад

This was some great instruction, and did a great deal to help de-mystify suspended chords for me. Thank you!!

@Al-jh9ie 11 месяцев назад

Thanks for your videos Guy, I've been playing electronic music for a while, and recently discovered a love for orchestral sounds as well, your videos have really helped!

@zelly8163 Год назад

Guy you're a legend! Many thanks from down under. You have help my music immeasurably.

@MarcCostaMusic 9 месяцев назад

Those chords is how Sabrina's theme by John Williams begins. It's like a question waiting for an answer.

@frederickchilds940 3 месяца назад

Sir Awesome! Thanks for your enthusiastic wisdom....time and time again!

@lahattec 11 месяцев назад

You have been putting out several gems lately. Much appreciated, and I might look into another course. :)

@brianwdowling Год назад

Great lesson. Much appreciated and thanks.

@edinatl2008 Год назад

Nice, been thinking about this topic a lot lately.

@chasebethersonton5169 11 месяцев назад

This was fantastic. Thank you!

@thewrenchreviews9986 Год назад

another excellent tutorial sir. Thank you.

@stepitupandgo67 11 месяцев назад

wow!! great lesson!!

@Multi_ToBi Год назад

Well, Guy, I get a lot of resolve out of your videos - to keep on learning, dreaming and writing music... Thank you so much!

@permanentwave 10 месяцев назад

Enjoyed just hearing you play would love to hear you just play piano anything .. So much information you always give us and watching you always makes my day.

@mradisic11 Год назад

Thank you Guy, you gave me a full of ideas to work on. 🤗

@corelli58 Год назад

Very useful and well explained video.

@ThinkSpaceEducation Год назад

thank you

@mksounds6326 5 месяцев назад

That was a great video. As a child of late-80's metal guitar I am no stranger to the 1-5-1. I do, however, tend to view my chord structures from the happy/sad perspective. This will greatly expand my thinking. I especially like the flavors of the sus chords. It's like a subtle hint in a smoky bar, words left unspoken. Well done!

@stuartjameswright 11 месяцев назад

Brilliantly inspirational. Thanks Guy.

@Zavertal Год назад

Love sus chords. Great stuff as usual.

@minstinct280 9 месяцев назад

FANTASTIC teacher!

@bradnowel Год назад

Wow ! So simple when explain like that !!!

@culttelevision Год назад

I've been obsessed with Sus chords my entire music life. Love them. I think it all started with Don Peake's Knight Rider score in 1984 where he used to drop a strat guitar sus 2 chord layered with a fat synth pad for suspense cues in the episodes, answered with a clatter of Simmons SDS Toms

@TechPithan Год назад

Great video for beginners like me. Thanks 🙏🏻

@McSynth 11 месяцев назад

Brilliant !

@paulembleton1733 Год назад

Ah, I remember the day I learnt the term sus chord. I was already improvising them on guitar, yah, take finger off B string when playing A or Am, nice sound less fingers! confused by the 7 chords - to big a number to see the connection! But seeing sus2 was the name of my “invented” chord, and I can count that far without actually counting, the penny dropped on the fundamentals, scales and keys and the structure of chords all suddenly made sense.

@puckuk1984 2 месяца назад

I would love love love a video all about about tension, guys take.

@PawelMusic 11 месяцев назад

Thanks a lot for another useful tutorial. I'm your great fan! This topic is what I'm especially interested on... I completed primary music school about... few (almost 40) years ago, and I really suffer from not having (or forgotten) proper music theory background. Chords play particular part of this gap. So please if you have time to read comments, take this as my suggestion for more interesting courses. Best Regards. Pawel

@suhareb9252 11 месяцев назад

I've been hearing these chords in tailer music and I just couldn't tell what they were, now I know, thanks guy

@andrewholcroft.1945 Год назад

Thanks for that.

@Kludgedean Год назад

I specifically picked up int suspended chords before I actually knew what they were technically. The joys of being forever an analyst! (There are definite down sides; I really struggle to hear vocals, as everything else gets my analytics juiced up!)

@ThinkSpaceEducation Год назад

Its not a bad place to be as long as you can compensate and cut lose sometimes

@vleiratfilms2020 11 месяцев назад

You are the best thing that’s happened to us 🌹 and no 😎of doubt about it 😇

@CraigRodmellMusic 11 месяцев назад

What you were saying, Guy, near the beginning, about major vs minor keys reminded me of "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn. Much of it is in just bare 5ths with little or no hint of whether it's in a major or minor key. It's quite a few lines in that we actually find out it's major. But that repeated bare 5ths motif is quite powerful.

@music_creator_capable Год назад

Nice !

@adambuchanan4972 10 месяцев назад

10:50 i hope you and your contribution to the world never resolve. Live forever!

@markpeam8549 11 месяцев назад

Would have liked to hear more about resolving them. Used on their own, the third-less effect sounds to my ear a bit like melodrama TV soundtrack - fine if that's what you want. But there's a certain sound/feeling from resolving them to the major and it would be useful to see that explored. In a pop rock context, for example, the middle eight in Springsteen's Born to Run has that relentlessly exciting feeling, for example.

@2econdhandbastards 11 месяцев назад

Nice SUPER power, considering your Amazing work for Spiderman and many more.

@EvansAudio 11 месяцев назад

Thanks

@fishrecharge 10 месяцев назад

One day, I'll be as good on the keyboard as Guy! Thank you for the lessons!

@no_sl303p 11 месяцев назад

I usually think of them as a mini dominant or subdominant, a way to create some tension while remaining on the 1.

@Kaeilios Год назад

Hi Guy, absolutely love the videos and everything you do, but would you mind putting the mic in mono ? Makes some videos reaaally hard to listen to on headphones when your voice isn't centered haha

@tobbebergman7583 Год назад

Thanks Guy! Or "The more ambiguous, the more expressive" -Leonard Bernstein

@sm7udb Год назад

Hi Guy, really enjoy your channel. Great stuff. Regarding sus chords I just realised that Csus4 is the same as Fsus2…😮. I can’t remember if you elaborated on that but it’s fun either way😊. Kindly Mikael

@mazeradeville2911 11 месяцев назад

A suspended chord is simply a stack of 5ths. In the case of Fsus2/Csus4, the natural extensions would be either D or Bb depending on the direction you move through the circle of 5ths. Assuming you're in the key of C, D would be the most consonant extension. Doing so creates two more suspended voicings utilising the same common tones of Csus2 and Gsus4.

@stevescooking 11 месяцев назад

Guy, if you had to pick an orchestral library which one would you pick?

@christiantaylor1495 11 месяцев назад

I'm that used to listening to ominous music that minor and even harmonic minor sound happy to me by contrast

@dafingaz Год назад

Nice

@rogercawkwell5413 11 месяцев назад

Worth pointing out, perhaps, that sus2 and sus4 are inversions of each other as is a chord built entirely of 4ths.

@LukaGroulx 11 месяцев назад

That first little piece has some 90s Hans Zimmer vibes ☺️

@stevescooking Год назад

Guy, question. I purchased komplete 14 collectors edition with an upgrade offer. I got it mainly for the “Symphony series” (not the essentials) Is it a competent library for professional work? With some tweaking it sounds pretty good to me…just wanted your opinion, thanks buddy Steve (Englishman who lives in America)

@ThinkSpaceEducation Год назад

It seems to be although I dont use it that much but you get so much cool stuff with collectors edition -teh Cremona solo strings -ashlight/p[harlight/straylight etc etc

@paulmdevenney 11 месяцев назад

@Guy This may sound trivial to you, but when you went from Csus2 to AbMajor (Ab Sus4) it sounded magical. Other than it being super-engrained, what made you pick that chord. What is the relationship between these chords and their use? A quick google tells me its the 6the of the relative minor, but that doesn't necessarily help me much in deciding to use it.

@Dave-nm8uk 11 месяцев назад

Simple, but neat. Makes one think about using these without immediately trying to resolve them.

@beatrixguitar 4 месяца назад

"I have no ide what the base is gonna do" 30 sec later: "okay it's doing that apparently" and casually moving forward got me cracking up, I want to be in peace with my music like that 🤣

@mokumanjep7030 11 месяцев назад

Hi Guy! What software you use to show the notes on the screen? I have a personal music theory site project (Best way to learn is trying to teach others) and I'm trying find easier way to show the notes than using photoshop (coloring the keys and adding text is hard work 🥴)

@ruuts5827 Год назад

It sounds inquisitive! Nice video as always!

@MattScottMusic 11 месяцев назад

“We managed to write two pieces of music without needing a third.” 😂 The way you put that had me chuckling. Sorry. That was funny. But I know what you meant.

@robertphilip1832 Год назад

❤❤❤

@headfirstonly Год назад

Sus chords in rock: the keyboard riff of Van Halen's "Jump" is a great example.

@LeeGee Год назад

Pinball Wizard, and pretty much anything else by The Oo

@ivansimonov6076 11 месяцев назад

GUY! Good News. BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA GOT NEW UPDATE AND ADDED A NEW INSTRUMENT CALLED PIANO!!

@JoanieAdamms Год назад

You've been prolific as of late Guy!

@m.richards6947 10 месяцев назад

Can you do a video about discord and chromatic, whole tone etc. in horror movies? I was watching the original Halloween and the first 10 minutes or so has some really tense descending synth. I don't understand how to do stuff like that "properly" other than just doing random clusters.

@showbiztom Год назад

I miss your dusty cozy messy shed with all those colorful little birds. By the way, this was an interesting piece of music theory.

@kevinmorgan2117 7 месяцев назад

Bit of a late comment here. Agree that a Csus4 sounds brighter than sus2. However, once the Csus4 is in first inversion it becomes Fsus2 so the difference must be relative to a perceived tonic rather than intrinsic (as in modes)?

@Fastvoice 11 месяцев назад

Still using Pianoteq 7? Version 8 is a real improvement and usually free for the buyers of the older one. Newest version is 8.1.1. BTW: I'm also a big sus fan.

@WizardOfArc 11 месяцев назад

My fave ways to make sus2 is by stacking 5ths…. And also discovering that sus2s are inversions of sus4s 😁

@DelasVC Год назад

This stuff is so valuable for us noobs :)!

@georgeatsiknoudas2402 Год назад

Hello Guy...one question. The sus2 and sus4 works at the same way also for minor chords? Thank you..

@adamsadler1985 11 месяцев назад

The only difference between a major and minor chord is the third, and since you don't play the third in either a sus2 or sus4, they're actually just the same thing. What this really means is that there is no such thing as a major or minor suspended chord, as they are a seperate thing entirely. Hope that helps!

@georgeatsiknoudas2402 11 месяцев назад

@adamsadler1985 Thank you very much for response. I try it in piano and is so beautiful...👍

@AndreasvanHaren Год назад

On unrelated note (no plot intended :) ), how do you show a keyboard below the video? Is this done with OBS?

@ThinkSpaceEducation Год назад

You can do it a number of ways. This is software called Midiculous which is a bit flakey but works then I use an Atem extreme but OBS would do it too

@AndreasvanHaren Год назад

@@ThinkSpaceEducation Thanks, Guy! And of course thanks for making the video. Alway fun and informative at the same time!

@Kotkamusic Год назад

How do you deal with the latency recording in cubase?

@ThinkSpaceEducation Год назад

Low buffer setting ie 128 and use track delay

@Xoannon1 Год назад

I can't read music and I can't play an actual instrument. Would I still count as a musician if the only thing I can make music on is a DAW?

@andallicansayis 4 месяца назад

it sounds like Kate Walker just solved a puzzle in Syberia

@ExtraTerrestrial4k Год назад

2:04 I know Giant Steps when I hear it

@angel006a 11 месяцев назад

If we mix the sus2 chord with the sus4 chord its almost a pentatonic scale

@johannborchersfriends Год назад

If you love Sus2 you'll also love 9ths.

@NachtPiano 11 месяцев назад

Reminds my of legend of Zelda

@magicmulder Год назад

"This chord is sus." - "I know, that's why I like it." :D

@karayuschij Год назад

Sus 2 is more intimate :)

@whackoization 8 месяцев назад

sounds like something from little house on the prairie or something

@jeremiahlyleseditor437 Год назад

RU-vid deletes other links

@silverfireVRgaming 11 месяцев назад

Thanks for the video! Since you requested links to our creations ... I hopped into Virtuoso VR, a VR live looping music production app, and did this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JKERQlgZmkE.html Very quick, very rough, but it was fun.

@ThinkSpaceEducation 11 месяцев назад

Wow amazing

@musicformediagr 11 месяцев назад

I feel like suspended chords belong to quiet plays, but personally i haven't found much luck using them on the big forte moments. I think its ok to be a bit 'neutral' when the tense is low but as the tense gets higher you should have a stronger opinion on how you feel and express that in a more direct minor or major way. Great video Guy 🙏🙏

@brucebarratt99 Год назад

The secret is there's no third in there... Oh... my... goddd. I feel so silly for not thinking of it that way before.

@ThinkSpaceEducation Год назад

Yup now you are part of the secret society

@brucebarratt99 Год назад

@@ThinkSpaceEducation Coool! I can't wait to learn the special handshake but I hope I don't have to do anything weird with a chicken.

@SecretAgentPaul 11 месяцев назад

@@brucebarratt99depends what you consider weird.

@f.herumusu8341 Год назад

Would be "Blue Panties" a nice title for that song? 10:50 :D

@daryllawrence9398 11 месяцев назад

Promo`SM

@orcsong Год назад

I have always considered sus chords to be the “male” chords. They struggle with commitment.

@ThinkSpaceEducation Год назад

Ha! Very good

@Czechbound Год назад

*But why are they called **_suspended chords_** ?* Is it that the 3rd is "suspended" ? Note : I know nothing. Also, are there examples of popular say, movie score main themes that are written using these chords ? Again. I know nothing.

@sigram2 Год назад

Suspended, because the fourth (or the second) is a dissonant tone that wants to resolve to the third (or prime) and the listener waits in suspension until it does ;) Movie scores are full of them, and they often resolve the suspension into a grand finale, or into a different theme.

@Czechbound Год назад

@@sigram2 Thank you very much. So it all revolves around the third ? ( ie there is no "sus 7" or "sus 6" ? ) That probably sounds like a very silly follow up question. But I know nothing, but I've always been curious around these weird (to me) "sus" things

@sigram2 11 месяцев назад

@@Czechbound basically yes, the third is the component that determines the mood of a simple triad (augmented, diminished and extended chords are more ambiguous) and our western ears ;) are trained that the harmony needs to eventually rest on either minor or major mode, and we feel restless until it does.

@Czechbound 11 месяцев назад

@@sigram2 Thank you so much for all this information and taking the time to share it. I know not just me will find it very interesting. All the best

@Noneoftheabove 11 месяцев назад

Now i know you did not iron your white top lol

@christiantaylor1495 11 месяцев назад

Major isn't happy at all 😭

@Jacques.dAnjou 11 месяцев назад

You know what the greatest power of music Is? Not needing words to describe it. There you go my friend. unsubscribed

@SecretAgentPaul 11 месяцев назад

That's what the whole channel is about. Why did you subscribe in the first place?

@cornodk Год назад

Great video Guy, Thanks! Is it my speakers or is the dialogue-audio not in mono here?

@ThinkSpaceEducation Год назад

Def stereo and Im super sensitive to that as a lot of people cant hear it

@gevarre Год назад

@@ThinkSpaceEducation Oh, we can hear it. Were you trying to do sus-2 on the vocal channel? ;) Even so, it was still awesome!

@erikjohnson2976 Год назад

Wonderful timing! I was actually just looking this up as I couldn't understand in guitar chords what, specifically, a sus chord was, though I recognized that it was a nice transitionary chord for a major chord change. Great stuff, thank you!

@ThinkSpaceEducation Год назад

Telepathy!

@darryldouglas6004 Год назад

There is also a thing as a sus chord without the addition of the fourth or second. Just playing the 1st and 5th. It’s called a power chord in the US. 😃

@christiantaylor1495 11 месяцев назад

@@darryldouglas6004 harmonic fith interval 😮

@darryldouglas6004 11 месяцев назад

@@christiantaylor1495 Yeah try using that language on a guitar player. 😆