[Dixielandjazz] More on Suspended Fourths

[Gluetje1 at aol.com]

John Wilder's comments (pasted below) to on this yesterday were really  
helpful, so helpful that I started thinking about why I made mistakes in trying  to 
answer yesterday.  (Tangent: The most wonderful music teacher I ever  had, 
and did not meet until I was 50, always thought the most important  thing about 
a mistake was to analyze why the mistake occurred.)  In doing  that analysis, 
I thought another post might serve to either further  enlighten Russ and 
whatever other reader might have the interest.
 
Suspended fourths, with the 3rd also being played, in my way of  thinking do 
happen plenty in Dixieland.  Take a look at Avalon in F, ninth  bar for 
example.  The second melody note in that bar is F with a  C7 chord, a C7sus4, right? 
 If you have a horn playing that melody F,  it is not in my experience that 
the banjo, piano, or guitar playing chord  rhythm is going to drop the "E" from 
their chord.  I think of this as one  reason Eddie Condon called it music and 
we all call it jazz.
Ginny
 
 
 
Ginny and Russ (and anyone else who cares to know),

Actually, Ginny,  you are partly correct regarding a suspended chord.  A
C7sus would be C,  F, G and Bb.  There would be no regular third (E) because
that's the  note that's being "suspended" up at the F.  It means to "suspend"
the  third up at the fourth, rather then to "add" a suspended fourth on top
of the  third.  I think that you'd find if the band is playing a C suspended
4  chord and a chording rhythm player plays a straight (non-suspended) C
chord  you would hear an awful dis-chord, as the E and F together (half step)
don't  like each other at all!

By the way, the chord is usually written as  "C7sus4" to distinguish it from
a sus2 chord.  If there is no number  after the sus then it is assumed to be
a sus4, which is the most common (but  not the only) suspension.  In a sus2
chord, you would drop the root (in  a Csus2 - the C note) in the chord in
favor of the second (D), although you  could still use the root (C) as a bass
note well below the chord in this case  without having a clash.

Also, it is not correct to say that the sus4 note  is almost always the
melody note (lead) of the tune.  Melody can be  anywhere during a suspended
chord.

Your definition of the note  "hanging out there" is right on.  A C7sus4 would
frequently (not always)  follow an F chord of some kind, and the F note in
the Csus4 chord would be  "suspended" over from the previous F chord.
Usually a sus4 chord "resolves"  back to the non-suspended version of the
same chord.  (ie. C7sus4 to  C7)

Suspended chords are sometimes used in Dixieland music  (infrequently), but
are much more common in more modern pop and other styles  of music.
Obviously, I've been using the C chord to explain, but many chords  could be
suspended.  (ie. Fm6sus2 for example - Probably never ever used  in Dixieland
music!!!)  

Hope this helps.  Thanks for  reading!

John Wilder
Backlot Theatre
El Dorado Hills, CA
Live  Musical Variety Productions and  Events