The suspended fourth chord (written “sus” or “sus4″) is used pretty extensively in contemporary ballad and indie-type sounds - it crops up a lot in songs by people like Coldplay, Ben Folds, Snow Patrol and others.
At heart, the suspended fourth is a very easy chord to add to your music. It’s a handy tool for adding depth and texture if you’re a songwriter, and you can add it to existing chord progressions for a bit of extra interest. It often works very well in tandem with ninth chords, especially when the tonic chord of a sequence is enriched with alternating ninths and suspended fourths - as you’ll see in the example in the video.
This video was originally created to tie in with my book, How To Really Play The Piano, but hopefully you’ll learn plenty from it even if you’re not working from the book. Any questions on suspended fourths or any other chords, post them in the comments thread!
UPDATE: You can see an old vid I did on the subject of the relationship between ninths and sus fourths here. Quality isn’t great, but there’s some useful stuff in there which should reinforce some of the points I’ve made in the newer vid.
