Here are a few quick tips for you! Maybe you knew these and maybe you didn’t!
There are about 33 chords that we use regularly in church music.
One of them is the suspended 4.

Now for you more advanced people, you can actually use a suspended 4 on many types of chords.
Suspended 4 just means you replace the 3rd with the 4th.
So in the key of C, the 3rd note of the scale is E and the 4th note is F.
So a C major chord is C E G (1-3-5) and a C suspended 4 chord is C F G (1-4-5)
A few more things, a C7sus4 would be a C7 where you replace the 3 with the 4.
So C7 = Bb C E G
C7sus4 = Bb C F G
(It generally resolves to the C7).
(Remember to play C in the bass or left hand with both of these chords).
That’s the thing with suspended 4 chords – they almost always need to resolve!
Resolve just means they change back to the original chord.
It’s almost like they put on a different outfit for a minute and change into a different type of chord but then they always put their original clothes back on.
Silly example, right?
Also a C9sus4 would be Bb D F G (over a C bass)
Then it would resolve to Bb D E G.
C7b9sus4 would be Bb Db F G and it would resolve to C7b9 which is Bb Db E G.
Or my personal favorite a C13 which is basically a suspended chord.
I like to voice a C13 like this.
Right Hand: D F A C
Left Hand: C G Bb
It’s just one of the coolest sounding chords.
Even minor chords can have a sus4 which would be C F G and then resolve to C Eb G.
Or Cm7sus4 which would be Bb C F G and then resolve to Cm7 which is Bb C Eb G.
Of course the crazy thing with minor chords is that you can actually just add the suspended 4 note to the chord and it sounds good.
Take a Cm7 for example. Instead of playing it as Bb C Eb G (or Bb Eb G as we teach in our lesson), try playing it as Bb Eb F G (over a C bass of course) for a really sweet sound.
Anyways, have fun this week playing with suspended 4 chords!
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