Is a Sus chord a major or minor

[jasperguitar]

I am doing some goofing, practicing strums.

Using a u tube vid.

the player is playing E, then an A sus 2.. sounds cool enough..

I got wondering... is a sus chord a major or minor chord.. the A
is the IV chord in E maj .. yes.. but the interval.. 1,to 2 does that make the sus chord technically maj, or min?

[mc1]

by definition, a suspended 3rd chord (sus2 or sus4) does not have a third and is therefore neither major nor minor.

[mr. beaumont]

They're neither really, on their own.

So it comes down to context...in your situation that Asus is likely standing in for an A major, but if it were a song the melody might be a better guide...the iv minor is less common but not unheard of.

And A's a IV chord in E major.

[jasperguitar]

just realized that ... E ... A, B .. ooops...

"the player is using E major chord to an A sus2 to a B sus2 with the first 2 strings open (B and e) and C# sus2 with the 2 string open again, then to a E sus2 down on that 7th fret of the 5th string. standard tuning by the way. "

according to one of the followup postings under the vid ..

[jasperguitar]

i fixed it ...

[jseth]

The answer is either "yes, and yes" or "none of the above"!!!

Just depends on how you want to look at it, although I always take a sus4 chord in the context of whatever tune in which it's used...

[scienceisgolden]

Yes, agree with the above...tune related.

I find I don't use them enough until I think about them. They can add just the right flavor.
(the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald).

A suspended chord is fun to experiment with if you like to change keys in a song...no need to go back to the major or minor key you started in.

[Cue Zephyr]

As has been said, the Asus2 is a stand-in for the A major chord.

This gets done a lot in the key of E. Like, you could swap the V for a Bsus4 (that's either x24400 or 799800), and the vi for a C#m7 (x46600). The A can also be played as an add9 (577600).

And the E, with the 079900 grip, can also be played lower on the neck, as 022400.

I use these voicings when playing in the key of E almost all the time.

It does get a bit tricky with the ii and iii chords. I just play them as 244200 and 466400 (with the thumb playing the bass note) respectively, but not everybody may be able to do that grip very well.


To the topic of sus chords, they are really nice. Kinda like their add9 cousins, work very well. I like them better than the sus4, as that sus4 always wants to fall towards it's neighbor major chord.

Nice.

[Von Beerhofen]

You can play chords in which the sus as wel as the third is present, the same goes for any chord with adds (for instance #5 which replaces the 5th. These chords are more often used on keyboards.
When played in narrow voicing these will sound disharmonic and kind of scary, less so in a wide voicing.
In wide voicings an octave is added, but you can also play a wide voicing with the note in the bass.
They're usually not easy to play, needing fingerstretches as each note is played on a seperate string. Sounds great when arpeggiating too and is often used in bluegrass but also many other styles.
I see em as binding notes as they usually dissolve into a ground note. Not sure if I said that right but I mean the sus4 can go to the 3rd or the 4th in the melody line.
When they don't dissolve they maintain their scary character, unless they're dissolved into some other chord.

Ludwig

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by jasperguitar

just realized that ... E ... A, B .. ooops...

"the player is using E major chord to an A sus2 to a B sus2 with the first 2 strings open (B and e) and C# sus2 with the 2 string open again, then to a E sus2 down on that 7th fret of the 5th string. standard tuning by the way. "

according to one of the followup postings under the vid ..

That seems clear, although (if I read his descriptions right) his terminology is inaccurate.

"B sus2 with the first 2 strings open (B and e)" - if that's x24400, then it's Bsus4.

"C# sus2 with the 2 string open again" - if this is x46600, then it's C#m7. (If it's including the open top E, as I suspect, then that's the 3rd.)

"E sus2 down on that 7th fret of the 5th string" - x79900 = E5 power chord (like jeff says below ). And "up", not "down".

[mr. beaumont]

That last chord is not an Esus2...really just an E5...nothing but E's and B's in it.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

That last chord is not an Esus2...really just an E5...nothing but E's and B's in it.

****, you're right ... let me correct that....