Songs that use Sus4 and Sus2 chords

Suspended chords, usually shortened to just "sus", are when the third of the chord is replaced by either the 4th or 2nd degree of the chord, introducing a "open" or "hanging" sound to the chord.

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0:00 Introduction
0:38 Sus4
3:12 Sus2
6:09 Tomplay
6:57 Sus4 & Sus2
9:35 Quartal Harmony

[catzenbeurg]

I pay my respect to David for his willpower, as he hasn't broken down from his narration style a single time while talking about sus chords for the entirety of this video.

[J-W_Grimbeek]

It's honestly kind of surreal watching an entire video about sus chords after 2021 without making a single amogus reference. Makes me nostalgic for a simpler time

[bareakon]

Using both sus2 and sus4 is extremely common as a guitar player, especially noodling around an open D or A chord, because it's easy and always sounds great.
Kickapoo is a pretty clear example that immediately comes to mind

[michaelsomerled]

That composition at the sounds so Ethereal.
Great work my friend.

[Wonderland_Jutomi]

Mad respect for the song you made at the end. Positively beautiful and serene. Admittedly I could definitely see this being a minecraft music disc.

[Leftytinkatolli]

Any other YouTuber: I couldn't find any examples of songs written entirely using sus chords. Thank you all for watching!

David Bennett Piano: I couldn't find any examples of songs written entirely using sus so I wrote my own piece using just sus chords!

[weepingscorpion]

As someone who as an amateur organ player plays a lot of hymns both at home and in church, sus chords are something I play a lot. Something very common is to play sus4 and then sus2 before playing the actual major or minor chord.

[the_b_emoji]

Can we get a video on quartal harmony. I've been struggling to get a full grasp of it, and would love to hear your explanation. Keep up the great work!

[aaronclift]

“When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around” by The Police is probably the closest song I can think of to being all sus chords. It does have an Em11 chord in the sequence, but the harmony of the song feels very open and ambiguous much like a sus chord.

[striverfor]

1:04
For No One - Beatles
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Pinball Wizard - The Who
Crazy little Thing Called Love
Cold As Ice - Foreigner

4:07
Love Song - Sara Bareilles
The Scientist - Coldplay
Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House
Champagne Supernova - Oasis

6:57
Exit Music (For a Film) - Radiohead
Summer of 69' - Bryan Adams
Other Side of the World - KT Tunstall
Free Fallin' - Tom Petty

[kenreeve]

Your piece built on sus chords at the end of the video so wants to resolve, but it keeps traveling alongside, above, and below any resolution. It evokes such a strange and wonderful emotion. Beautiful!

[mateusbez]

Some missing that came to mind immediately:

Black (Pearl Jam) uses a Dsus2 in the entire outro
The opening riffs of Jump (Van Halen) and The riff of Black or White (Michael Jackson) are pivoting Sus2/major/sus4

Grunge, and Pearl Jam specifically, uses a lot of sus chords. Alive, Jeremy, Better Man, I am Mine all have sus chords in the chord progression (and there are probably many more).

Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden) is built on a Gsus4.

The sus chord is a very important part of the Grunge sound, and it usually never properly resolves.

[shadehunter]

I always enjoy when you compose your own pieces, but WOW! This one at the end was stellar in every sense of the word. I might be biased as a stringsman, but the use of nothing but suspended chords sounds wicked cool!

[hnnymn]

James Taylor uses sus4 chords in quite an unusual manner (see: You've Got A Friend, Carolina In My Mind, Sweet Baby James, many others).

He often uses the sus4 chord _not_ as a temporary variation of a Major chord that resolves to the Major chord (such as the “D → D4 → D → D4 → etc” opening of Crazy Little Thing Called Love and hundreds of others).

Instead, James uses the sus4 as a “softer” _replacement_ for the V chord in a perfect cadence (V → I). This “Taylorized” perfect cadence (Vsus4 → I) resolves more gently due to there not being a half-step movement from the 3rd of the V to the Root of the I.

Taylor does this a lot (eg, G → A7sus4 →D), and he's the only one I can think of who does it. I like to imagine that he uses this “softened” cadence because it fits with his laidback easygoing personality.

[Churro_Flaminguez]

I think quartal harmony is my new favorite thing, after being a fan of accidented ambiguous chords for a long long time
Thanks for another great video, David. This is one of your best IMHO.

[rome]

That ending track may have been my favorite composition of yours yet.

[isaacthomas]

We use suspended chords a lot in Christian worship music. Common voicings are the IV and the V chords simply labeled sus so you get to pick sus4 or sus2. And players often use suspended chords when it is not written to do so either because they prefer the sound, or it’s easier, or both.

[nbnewman]

Another classic suspended fourth intro is "Carry on" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (Deja vu).
I enjoyed the closing instrumental.

[alantaylor]

Beautiful melody in your piece at the end.
Great vid as always.
Thank you.

[boomerbear]

There doesn't always have to be a resolution, or a destination... sometimes the journey is the destination in and of itself. After realizing I had been playing "Free Fallin'" wrong (with regular major chords as opposed to the sus chords here) I have never been able to look at the song the same way and now the sus chords stand out. I was hoping for this song to be in this video and here it was!