Suspended & Added Chords: A Deep Dive for Pop, Folk, and Rock Musicians

If there's one chord that's used a lot (often overused) in pop and rock music, it's the suspended chord. It's a traditionally classical and folk music idiom that has found it's way into mainstream pop, rock and even metal. It's used in classic rock like Van Halen's "Panama," Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine," and Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive." It also often appears in more modern, power-chord-driven music like Pierce the Veil's "Props & Mayhem".

We're going to go through all of the variations and the way this chord is used over and over in everything from pop to classic rock to metal.

How Music Works: A Guide to Chords, Progressions, and Their Functions in Classical Music

Classical music, with its profound emotional depth and intricate structures, often captivates us without us fully understanding how. Much of this power lies in the masterful use of chord progressions – the purposeful sequence of chords that guides our ears through a sonic journey. This blog post will delve into the fascinating world of classical harmony, exploring how understanding scale degree characteristics and chord families can unlock the secrets behind these compelling musical narratives.

Classical theory doesn't need to be complicated. There are basic rules that all music follows. Here are the basics. 

Harmonic Elaboration

So you've written a memorable hook, or a nice little melody. You put together some chords to go with your creation and that's it. What a lot of musicians don't seem to realize is that with any given set of notes, there are a ton of different ways to harmonize it. If you've ever heard some of the mash-ups of well known songs put on top of other tracks, you can see how there are many things you can do with the background.

The Basics

Whenever you've written a melody, there are a set of chords or harmonies that we may 'automatically' hear. For example if it's a simple melody that doesn't move around much or have any weird leaps and accidentals, we will probably hear a basic I IV V I. Since we hear these progressions so often, we may automatically hear them in our head. That doesn't mean that we have to use them, or even that they're 'right'. For example if you have a simple melody you may want to use other chords because you want a different 'feel' for the song. Or, you want to invoke some surprise, or you want to change it into a different genre, or you just may want to make the song 'more interesting'.