Being unobjectionable doesn’t really sound like a compliment, but there is a beautiful ambiguity to a suspended chord that makes it fit in pretty much anywhere. If we take this G chord and replace the third with the fourth, it’s called a Gsus4. But the exact same notes down here look like a C chord where we’ve replaced the third with the second, and that’s called a Csus2.
So which one is it? I don’t know, and neither does your listener. Because of this ambiguity, these notes are unobjectionable.
Pretty much anywhere you put them within the key. It makes them a fabulous candidate for a drone. No, not that kind of drone.
In music we might call this an ostinato, which doesn’t mean “unobjectionable” in Italian. It means “stubborn.” And to keep this interesting, let’s take this three-note pattern and play it over a four-beat sequence. Strong melodies typically line up strong chord tones with strong beats, and while each of these notes is a great melody candidate, it’s going to take three measures for the same note to land on the same beat.
This builds variation into the pattern. If someone who wants to take a sus chord ostinato and play it all day long, then someone who belongs in a Beat Kitchen class. Share this post.
