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Chord Extensions 101: Suspensions

By September 10, 2012June 8th, 2023Lessons

Chord extensions, simply put, make you sound like a better guitarist. Common chord extensions include: suspensions (today’s topic), add9, Major 7, Minor 7, Major 9, 6th, etc. This is the first part in a little mini series about how to use chord extensions to your advantage. I welcome any questions and hope to be able to help you use these in your own clinical settings.

When we are talking about suspensions on the guitar, we are typically talking about adding the 4th. This creates a little tension, and thus, a greater pull toward the I chord (tonic). We can suspend the I chord and the V chord. If we try to suspend the IV chord, it ends up taking us out of the key (although some pop songs do make use of this for a specific sound). See the following video and chord frames for examples. Enjoy, and tell me what else you would like to know!

Here are some chord frames of sus chords and sus7 chords:

Best,

Matt

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