Core Ukulele Chords - Triads, Suspended Chords

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The term is borrowed from the contrapuntal technique of suspension, where a note from a previous chord is carried over to the next chord, and then resolved, historically, down to the third, suspending a note from the previous chord. However, in modern usage, the term concerns only the notes played at a given time; in a suspended chord, the added tone does not necessarily resolve, and is not necessarily “prepared” (i.e., held over) from the prior chord. As such, in C-F-G, the F would resolve to E, but in rock and popular music, the term is used to indicate only the harmonic structure, with no implications about what comes before or after, though preparation of the fourth occurs about half the time and traditional resolution of the fourth occurs usually. In modern jazz, a third can be added to the chord voicing, as long as it is above the fourth.

In the traditional sense a sus is a sus 4. And a sus2 is a modern name and does not fit the traditional definition. So a C-D-G really is a C5add2.

In traditional chord theory there are four traditional triad chord types: major, minor, diminished, and augmented. And four contemporary triad chord types: sus2, sus4, add2 and add9.

This series of lessons explores contemporary suspended or sus chords using triads covered in earlier lessons of this series.

Triads are a great introduction to arpeggios and improvisation.

Lessons in this series include traditional and contemporary triads on:

• Triads on strings 1, 2, 3
• Triads on strings 2, 3, 4
• Triads using all four strings