Csus2 and Other Suspended Chords

Well, that’s lots of stuff already, and we only looked at two chords.  How about one more:

These are just different names for a chord of the same three notes: c d g.  I made up Dstacked4 -- it isn’t a name I’ve seen anywhere else, which I find odd.  The stacked fourths should have a name.  The “stacked5” chord has the same notes as the “sus2” chord: Csus2 is the same as Cstacked5.  If you stacked up a fourth fourth (here either by adding A below or F above) you get a 7sus4 chord.  So, a d g c is D7sus4 and d g c f  is G7sus4.

We already discussed why not to play C major pentatonic over Csus2.  Since we made these chords from the C major pentatonic scale, you might think when you see these in a chord progression, you can play C major pentatonic over it.  It doesn’t work for Csus2.  The problem is that suspended chords means don’t play the third, because the suspended second or fourth may soon resolve to the third, and playing the E of C major pentatonic makes it resolve too soon.

One thing that makes the pentatonic scale flexible is that is can be played over different roots, which allows each note of the scale to serve a different function than it usually does.  If the chord is Csus2, the root is C, no matter what pentatonic scale we play over the chord.

So, if you can’t play C pentatonic over Csus2, the other pentatonic scales that include the notes of Csus2 are F pentatonic and Bb pentatonic (you can see this from the circle of fifths, see above).  F pentatonic is an interesting choice; considered with the root C, you get the root (C), second (D), fourth (F), fifth (G) and sixth(A).  It’s like a super suspended scale (with the sixth for some color) and could be played over Csus2 or Csus4.  Similarly, Bb pentatonic over C is root (C), second (D), fourth (F), fifth (G) and minor seventh (Bb).   It too can be played over Csus2 or Csus4.  Depending on the song, the 7th might not be appropriate, but it might.  F pentatonic is probably the safer choice.  If the chord is C7sus4, Bb pentatonic is the clear favorite. Either choice of pentatonic includes both the second and the fourth, which might not work. 

Next: Some Real Life Examples