Worship Piano

Beginner to Pro
Lecture 13: Suspended/Add 4 Chords

Suspended chords (sus) happen most often on the 5th chord in a given key.
In the key of C, the 5 chord is a G. Here is a Gsus . Note the fingering.

R1 R4 R5

G C D

To “resolve” the sun chord, we drop the middle note down a half step. This
reforms our basic triad.

R1 R3 R5

G B D
 Just like the 1 and 4 when we Add 2 or +2 (adding the 2nd interval) to the
chord, the 5 sometimes is played as an add 4 or +4. This is where we play
the triad and ADD the 4th from the root of the chord. In this case, G. It looks
like this:

R1 R3 R4 R5

G B C D

Closing thoughts: Any chord could be a “sus” or “+4.” But most of the time in
contemporary worship music, this happens when you get to the 5 chord in the
chord.

Homework: You know the drill. Work on finding the 5 chord in our big 4 keys
(C,D,F,G) then modify the 5 chord to be a sus AND add4 chord. Do this for all of
them.

Move onto the keys of Bb, E, A, Eb. Then other keys as you are able.