Suspensions — The Second Before a Chord Resolves

Hold a chord tone while the harmony moves beneath it, and let it turn into another note

The mechanism of a suspension fits in one sentence: hold one chord tone still, let the harmony underneath move on first, and wait for it to become a different note.

The held note, during that second, stops being a member of the current chord — and that is where the tension comes from.

Two kinds, named after the degree held

One: suspended fourth — the fourth above the root is held.

Two: suspended second — the second is held.

The key: a suspension tone is not a chord tone

This is the sentence worth taking away:

• an ordinary chord tone (C E G) is a member of the chord and sounds "right";
• a suspension tone (F in sus4, D in sus2) is not a member and sounds "wrong".

The tension comes precisely from that "wrongness".

So the way to identify a suspension is not "does it sound like a C chord" but:

1. listen for whether the note is a chord tone; 2. if it is not, ask where it is going.

That is the same idea as the interval and seventh-chord pages here — an unstable interval carries its own direction.

Suspension is not the same as "unresolved"

One common confusion: a suspension is not an unresolved chord. The difference:

• an unresolved chord (a diminished triad, say) is intrinsically unstable — it wants to go somewhere;
• a suspension is one unstable note inside an otherwise stable chord, waiting to fall to a chord tone.

The first is "where will the chord go"; the second is "where will this note go". A suspension is therefore more like a decorative suspense — it resolves quickly, usually on the very next beat.

An action you can verify yourself

1. Listen only to the first group (sus4) as a block — note how it differs from a plain major triad; 2. Then listen to the major triad on the triad page; 3. Switch back and forth — sus4 sounds "more open, more empty", because it has lost its third and gained its fourth.

That emptiness is the essence of a suspension. Its tension does not come from ugliness but from the fact that it has not finished its sentence.

An honest boundary

Only the two most basic suspensions are shown here. Real suspensions also include:

• suspended 7th, 9th, 11th — identical principle, higher held degree;
• tie — not a suspension at all; it *joins* two notes rather than holding one;
• retardation — the deliberately unresolved variant of a suspension.

But the test is always the same: is that note a chord tone?

Next

• How chord tones are constituted: three chord qualities
• Another kind of unstable interval: seventh chords
• Where suspensions usually appear: the three commonest progressions
• The psychology of expectation and resolution: how music triggers emotion

Sources

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• 实例均标注来源与许可档位，可在线试听；练习用的合成音由浏览器实时生成，非录音

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.