0:00:13.453,0:00:15.708
Now I can teach you about suspended chords.
0:00:15.708,0:00:18.651
So, what is a suspended chord, first of all?
0:00:18.651,0:00:20.795
They're not chords[br]that just like hanging around a lot.
0:00:21.318,0:00:23.993
So, first of all you need to know what a "triad" is.
0:00:23.993,0:00:26.570
Now, and triads are not [br]Asian dudes with machine guns.
0:00:26.570,0:00:28.085
In a musical sense.
0:00:28.900,0:00:30.210
So, what we are talking about here[br]
0:00:30.210,0:00:33.322
is a triad that is a three note chord.
0:00:33.322,0:00:34.373
Tri, prefix for three,
0:00:34.373,0:00:35.905
so it's a three note chord.
0:00:35.905,0:00:38.293
Three notes chords consist of a root note,
0:00:38.293,0:00:39.534
a third and a fifth,
0:00:39.534,0:00:41.041
wich is really the first note,
0:00:41.088,0:00:44.800
the third note and the fifth note of a Major scale.
0:00:44.800,0:00:46.804
Now, it's the third note of the triad
0:00:46.804,0:00:49.989
that determines whether the chord is major or minor.
0:00:50.297,0:00:52.705
So, if we were to have a look at, say, an A chord,
0:00:52.705,0:00:57.836
then notes in A would be A, B,[br]C would be the third, D, E.
0:00:57.836,0:01:01.051
Now, actually, because of the key signature,[br]the note C would be a C#,
0:01:01.051,0:01:02.702
to make an A major chord.
0:01:02.702,0:01:05.487
If you just go now [br]and play an A chord, an A Major chord
0:01:05.487,0:01:06.788
. . .
0:01:06.788,0:01:09.735
and then you straight away afterward[br]play an A minor chord
0:01:09.766,0:01:10.578
...
0:01:10.578,0:01:12.682
you'd notice that only one note is different.
0:01:12.682,0:01:15.197
And that's the C# on the B string, [br]
0:01:15.197,0:01:18.407
second fret moves to C natural note
0:01:18.407,0:01:19.602
(plays) in the first fret.
0:01:19.602,0:01:21.884
So, it is in fact only one note every time
0:01:21.884,0:01:24.685
that changes between a major and a minor chord.
0:01:25.023,0:01:27.022
Sometimes that note is doubled [br]in your chord voicing,
0:01:27.022,0:01:29.344
just to warn you, it’s just not like [br]one note on the guitar;
0:01:29.344,0:01:31.571
harmonically it's one note that changes.
0:01:31.571,0:01:33.707
Now, suspended chords
0:01:33.707,0:01:35.994
take away the third of the chord
0:01:35.994,0:01:37.644
and replace it with another note.
0:01:38.013,0:01:41.293
So therefore, suspended chords [br]are neither major or minor,
0:01:41.293,0:01:43.154
and they have a very airy sound.
0:01:43.154,0:01:45.539
So, if I just give you some demonstrations here:
0:01:45.539,0:01:46.527
A Major:
0:01:46.527,0:01:47.623
. . .
0:01:47.623,0:01:49.577
Old happy sounding A Major.
0:01:49.577,0:01:51.296
Now, if I move that...
0:01:51.296,0:01:53.536
the third of the chord, [br]which is the note C#,
0:01:53.536,0:01:55.360
if I move that up one semitone,
0:01:55.360,0:01:56.473
to D
0:01:56.473,0:01:57.809
...
0:01:57.809,0:01:59.790
we now have an Asus4 sound.
0:01:59.790,0:02:02.672
. . .
0:02:02.672,0:02:04.302
Here it's kinda hovering,
0:02:04.302,0:02:06.059
it is kind of hanging about a bit, that one.
0:02:06.059,0:02:06.911
. . .
0:02:06.911,0:02:08.472
Then we go back to A,
0:02:08.472,0:02:09.801
. . .
0:02:09.801,0:02:11.706
Now, if I lift off my little finger now:
0:02:11.706,0:02:13.018
. . .
0:02:13.018,0:02:15.855
which is kind of going down...[br]that note down two frets,
0:02:15.855,0:02:18.422
because if I go down just one [br]it gets to the minor chord,
0:02:18.422,0:02:19.242
...
0:02:19.242,0:02:21.216
we get an Asus2 chord.
0:02:21.709,0:02:22.707
So, we've got now A:
0:02:22.707,0:02:24.071
. . .
0:02:24.071,0:02:25.188
Asus4:
0:02:25.188,0:02:26.410
. . .
0:02:26.410,0:02:27.122
A
0:02:27.122,0:02:27.835
. . .
0:02:27.835,0:02:28.855
and Asus2:
0:02:28.855,0:02:30.127
. . .
0:02:30.127,0:02:31.390
Quite a simple movement.
0:02:31.390,0:02:34.045
Now, I'm not doing close-ups here at the chords,
0:02:34.045,0:02:35.838
because it's quite a few chords and a few songs
0:02:35.838,0:02:37.240
that I'm going to go through in this lesson,
0:02:37.240,0:02:39.045
so, please go and check out the chords at:[br]
0:02:39.153,0:02:42.922
www.justinguitar.com
0:02:42.922,0:02:45.261
you click on "chords" which is on the left hand side,
0:02:45.261,0:02:47.427
or "chords and scales" I think it says actually,
0:02:47.427,0:02:49.526
and then in the top group[br]there are suspended chords.
0:02:49.526,0:02:51.813
It shouldn't be very difficult for you to find them,
0:02:51.813,0:02:54.119
and it explains all the different[br]fingering choices as well,
0:02:54.119,0:02:55.828
so please go and check that out.
0:02:55.828,0:02:58.170
So, that was A chord.[br]You can hear we had A:
0:02:58.170,0:03:01.342
. . .
0:03:01.342,0:03:02.674
Very common sound.
0:03:03.274,0:03:05.312
That is the A chord.[br]Now if we move it onto D,
0:03:05.312,0:03:06.375
. . .
0:03:06.375,0:03:07.761
play a regular D chord,
0:03:07.761,0:03:09.529
then we add our little finger down,
0:03:09.529,0:03:11.161
. . .
0:03:11.161,0:03:12.174
that's Dsus4.
0:03:12.174,0:03:13.349
. . .
0:03:13.349,0:03:15.757
Back to regular D,[br]lift off our second finger,
0:03:15.757,0:03:16.739
. . .
0:03:16.739,0:03:18.162
we get Dsus2
0:03:18.162,0:03:18.874
. . .
0:03:18.874,0:03:20.616
and then back to D.
0:03:21.277,0:03:24.692
Now, just using those two types of chord shapes,
0:03:24.692,0:03:27.207
I can show you [br]a couple of the different ways it was used.
0:03:27.207,0:03:28.800
The first way you use suspended chords[br]
0:03:28.800,0:03:30.388
is as an ornament,
0:03:30.388,0:03:31.729
it's to kind of decorate when you play.
0:03:31.729,0:03:33.494
So, if you got a D chord for ages and ages
0:03:33.494,0:03:35.571
and you just want to do [br]something a little bit different to it,
0:03:35.571,0:03:36.764
then it just... you know
0:03:36.764,0:03:38.337
. . .
0:03:38.337,0:03:39.955
If you start to get a bit bored, you could:
0:03:39.955,0:03:45.836
. . .
0:03:45.836,0:03:47.650
You can just kind of add them in whenever you like,
0:03:47.650,0:03:49.877
and they work on major and minor chords.
0:03:49.877,0:03:51.925
I'll show you some tricks on that in a sec.
0:03:52.571,0:03:55.908
Some famous examples[br]I can think off the top of my head was...
0:03:55.908,0:03:58.420
and old song from the 80's or early 90's...[br]
0:03:59.358,0:04:00.693
"Dead or Alive", by Bon Jovi,
0:04:00.693,0:04:02.319
it's got a really nice example [br]right at the beginning,[br]
0:04:02.319,0:04:03.297
where it goes:
0:04:03.374,0:04:06.459
. . .
0:04:06.459,0:04:09.252
It's a little decoration on the D chord there.
0:04:10.314,0:04:14.374
Another good example [br]is "Summer of 69" by Bryan Adams.
0:04:14.374,0:04:16.028
It's actually a keyboard part,
0:04:16.028,0:04:18.010
but that whole song is doing a...
0:04:21.164,0:04:25.180
Yeah, it starts on Dsus2, D,
0:04:25.180,0:04:27.024
sus4, D
0:04:27.024,0:04:28.342
sus2, D,
0:04:28.342,0:04:31.008
and then it goes to Asus2, (plays)
0:04:31.008,0:04:33.212
A regular, Asus4, A.
0:04:33.212,0:04:41.350
. . .
0:04:41.350,0:04:42.453
So you can see then,
0:04:42.453,0:04:45.365
in that instance it's kind of [br]using the suspended chord
0:04:45.365,0:04:48.080
as a riff, not just as an ornament.
0:04:48.080,0:04:50.982
So, so far we've talked about D Major [br]
0:04:50.982,0:04:52.712
and then going to the sus,
0:04:52.712,0:04:54.334
and A major going to the sus,
0:04:54.334,0:04:57.217
and like I said, it also works for minor chords.
0:04:57.217,0:04:59.144
So if we start with a D minor chord:
0:04:59.144,0:05:00.886
. . .
0:05:00.886,0:05:04.017
add the little finger (plays),[br]we get Dsus4 again.
0:05:04.017,0:05:05.327
Back to D minor:
0:05:05.327,0:05:06.111
...
0:05:06.111,0:05:08.049
And then lift off your first finger (plays)
0:05:08.049,0:05:09.668
and you get Dsus2.
0:05:09.668,0:05:11.440
So the sus4 and the sus2 are the same,
0:05:11.440,0:05:13.324
just we've put a minor in the middle[br]
0:05:13.324,0:05:14.094
instead of a major.
0:05:14.094,0:05:14.809
...
0:05:14.870,0:05:16.370
So a good example of using that one
0:05:16.370,0:05:18.560
for both a Dm and Am is...
0:05:19.483,0:05:21.001
"Loosing my Religion", by R.E.M.,
0:05:21.001,0:05:22.161
where it's got this little:
0:05:22.161,0:05:31.829
. . .
0:05:31.829,0:05:33.010
You can hear very clearly that
0:05:33.010,0:05:34.519
he's used the suspended chords
0:05:34.581,0:05:35.585
to kind of make a riff.
0:05:36.616,0:05:38.636
Also the Rolling Stones on "Paint it Black"
0:05:38.636,0:05:41.050
kind of uses it on the D minor at the beginning:
0:05:41.050,0:05:44.882
. . .
0:05:44.882,0:05:46.958
It changes a bit to that last part.
0:05:46.958,0:05:47.789
. . .
0:05:47.789,0:05:49.315
Very last bit's a bit different,
0:05:49.315,0:05:51.325
but the first part of it is the sus chords.
0:05:53.418,0:05:56.551
So, that's taken care of Dsus4 and Dsus2, [br]
0:05:56.659,0:05:58.466
Asus4 and Asus2.
0:05:58.974,0:06:00.319
If we go on to E now,
0:06:00.843,0:06:02.102
We have a regular E chord,
0:06:02.102,0:06:04.033
if we put down our little finger
0:06:04.033,0:06:06.490
underneath the third finger,
0:06:06.490,0:06:07.438
...
0:06:07.438,0:06:09.217
we get Esus4. (plays)
0:06:09.217,0:06:10.348
And back to E.
0:06:10.348,0:06:11.585
Now, we can't get...
0:06:11.662,0:06:14.435
There's no such chord [br]as an Esus2 chord in an open position.
0:06:14.435,0:06:15.916
I mean, there kind of is just later on, [br]
0:06:15.916,0:06:17.288
but for you right now, there's not.
0:06:18.026,0:06:19.337
Because if we lift off the first finger,
0:06:19.337,0:06:21.878
we get to E minor, not Esus2.
0:06:21.955,0:06:23.040
Yeah?
0:06:23.040,0:06:24.263
You can play it like this, (plays)
0:06:24.263,0:06:25.361
like a big barre chord later on,
0:06:25.361,0:06:27.226
but that's not the one for you right now.
0:06:28.042,0:06:30.877
Again, there's quite a few tunes [br]that use the Esus chord.
0:06:31.477,0:06:33.451
Another good example of that one is...
0:06:33.451,0:06:35.385
"It's Only Natural" by Crowded House,
0:06:35.385,0:06:37.619
which is E, Esus4
0:06:37.619,0:06:42.420
. . .
0:06:42.420,0:06:45.201
Then Asus4 to A
0:06:45.201,0:06:47.736
Asus4 to A and back to E.
0:06:47.736,0:06:49.766
. . .
0:06:49.766,0:06:51.887
Then it goes into barre chords [br]for the rest of the tune.
0:06:51.887,0:06:52.673
But the verses...[br]
0:06:52.673,0:06:55.070
You can hear it's kind of using it like a riff,
0:06:55.070,0:06:57.374
but it's not really a riff, [br]it's just a decoration.
0:06:57.805,0:06:58.668
Now...
0:06:59.883,0:07:01.116
the only other ones that I think
0:07:01.116,0:07:02.919
that are kind of useful for you to learn
0:07:02.919,0:07:05.155
as a starting one is maybe a Csus.
0:07:05.155,0:07:06.740
Now, C is a bit weird, [br]
0:07:06.740,0:07:08.079
because remember I told you that sometimes
0:07:08.371,0:07:11.465
you have to change the third of a chord [br]to make a suspended chord.
0:07:11.465,0:07:13.605
Well, in the case of a C open chord,
0:07:13.605,0:07:16.871
we've got the note E,
0:07:16.871,0:07:17.684
which is the third of the chord.
0:07:17.684,0:07:18.497
It occurs twice.
0:07:18.497,0:07:19.841
So, what I'm just gonna show you[br]
0:07:19.841,0:07:21.703
is a nice kind of decoration,
0:07:21.764,0:07:23.717
but it's not really a true C suspended chord,[br]
0:07:23.717,0:07:25.912
because you might hit the first string.
0:07:26.374,0:07:27.568
There's more of that on the web site.
0:07:28.122,0:07:29.523
But just if you start with C:
0:07:29.600,0:07:30.576
...
0:07:30.576,0:07:32.076
put down your little finger[br]
0:07:32.076,0:07:33.271
in front of your second finger,
0:07:33.271,0:07:34.140
underneath your third
0:07:34.217,0:07:36.733
. . .
0:07:36.763,0:07:38.836
You get Csus4, (plays),
0:07:38.836,0:07:39.633
back to C,
0:07:39.633,0:07:42.524
lift off your second finger, (plays)
0:07:42.524,0:07:44.767
and you get a Csus2. [br]Back to C,
0:07:44.767,0:07:46.271
which is just a really nice change.
0:07:46.271,0:07:53.079
. . .
0:07:53.079,0:07:55.213
You can hear It's just got a kind of comfortable,
0:07:55.213,0:07:57.358
easy feeling for some rhythm guitar.
0:07:57.358,0:07:58.967
So, OK.
0:07:58.967,0:07:59.896
That will do for now.
0:07:59.896,0:08:01.924
If you want to check out [br]some more suspended chords,
0:08:01.924,0:08:04.439
I think every open suspended chord I can think of [br]
0:08:04.439,0:08:05.207
is on the web site,
0:08:05.207,0:08:06.452
so go and have check that out.
0:08:07.313,0:08:09.981
And then try and apply them [br]to any songs that you've got...
0:08:09.981,0:08:11.948
where you've got a chord for a long time.
0:08:11.948,0:08:15.236
See if you can incorporate [br]some of those suspended chords in,
0:08:15.236,0:08:17.428
to make your rhythm guitar playing [br]a little more interesting.
0:08:17.844,0:08:18.882
Have fun, see you soon.
0:08:18.906,0:08:19.460
Bye!