Sus chords, or suspended chords, are variations to traditional major and minor chords. While the name might seem unfamiliar, you’ve undoubtedly heard them many times and would recognize them immediately in popular songs like “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen and many others. They have multiple uses and really help to add color and movement to chord progressions, particularly around a single chord.
In previous lessons we’ve explored both major triads and minor triads, which are two of the most commonly used triads. In this lesson we round out the triads of the major scale with a look at diminished triads.
Seventh chords are chords that include the root plus the 3rd, 5th, and 7th intervals above the root. Another way to think about it is a seventh chord is a triad plus a 7th interval.
If you’ve been exposed to at least a bit of guitar theory, you’ve most likely heard of the CAGED system. It’s a system that allows you to visualize the guitar fretboard by using common major chord shapes.
Learning to apply the guitar number system to chord progressions will literally kick down the door to mastering the guitar fretboard.