Sus chords

A great way to make your basic major chords a little more interesting is to change them into a sus chord. Sus stands for suspended, of which there are 2 types, sus2 and sus4.

Lets have a look at an example from the key of C major.

C major scale

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

To play a C major chord, we take the 1st 3rd and 5th notes from the scale. e.g. C, E, G. Sus stands for suspended. If we play a Csus2 chord, it means we replace the 3rd note (E in this case) with the 2nd note (D). Our Csus2 ends up being C, D, G.

Sus4 chords are very similar. You've guessed it! Instead of replacing the E with a D, we now replace it with an F (the 4th note from the scale).

Here's a tab with some easy sus chords.

E|--0-----0-----0-----3-----
B|--0-----3-----3-----3-----
G|--2-----2-----2-----2-----
D|--2-----2-----0-----0-----
A|--0-----0-----------------
E|--------------------------

Asus2 Asus4 Dsus2 Dsus4

Try playing the following chord progression: Dsus2, Asus4, A, E!

Reel Big Fish - Why do all girls think they're fat

Here's a great little snippet of a solo I pulled from here

Lots of distortion always helps! :)

E|-------14-10-------9---------10----------------|
B|----------------10--------10-------15b17r15----|
G|----10--------9-------11--------12-------------|
D|-12--------------------------------------------|
A|-----------------------------------------------|
E|-----------------------------------------------|

E|--------------------|
B|-----10---8-7-------|
G|---7----------9-7---|
D|-7------7-----------|
A|--------------------|
E|--------------------|

Say Anything - Crush'd - acoustic version

I spotted this on youtube and thought it was worth a tab. Some really nice chords used:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q7mv2f48GE&feature=fvw

This song is tuned to DADGAD and then up a semitone. Nasty!

For those of you who have never experimented outside of standard tuning, tune your low E string to a D (down a tone), your high E string to a D to a D also (down a tone) and your B string to an A. Then tune the whole thing up a semitone!

Say Anything - Crush'd


Intro/Verse

D#|-------------------------------
A#|-------------------------------
G#|--------------8-8-------------
D#|-9--9---7-7--9-9--5-5-4-4----
A#|-12-12--5-5--9-9--2-2-2-2----
D#|-9--9---5-5--9-9--2-2-2-2----

Pre-chorus

D#|------------------------------------
A#|------------------------------------
G#|------------------------------------
D#|-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-5-5-5-5-4-4-7-7-
A#|-5-5-5-5-7-7-7-7-2-2-2-2-2-2-7-7-
D#|-5-5-5-5-7-7-7-7-2-2-2-2-2-2-7-7- x 3

D#|------------------0-0-0-0-
A#|------------------0-0-0-0-
G#|------------------0-0-0-0-
D#|-7-7-7-7-9-9-9-9-7-7-7-7-
A#|-5-5-5-5-9-9-9-9-7-7-7-7-
D#|-5-5-5-5-9-9-9-9-7-7-7-7-

Play nice and staccato in the pre-chorus; keep the notes sharp and short.

Chorus

D#|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
A#|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
G#|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-6-6-6-6-6-
D#|-5-5-5-4-4-4-4-4-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-
A#|-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-5-5-5-7-7-7-7-7-
D#|-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-5-5-5-7-7-7-7-7-


Second pre-chorus

D#|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--
A#|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--
G#|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--
D#|-9-9-9-9-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-5-5-4-4--
A#|-9-9-9-9-5-5-5-5-7-7-7-7-2-2-2-2--
D#|-9-9-9-9-5-5-5-5-7-7-7-7-2-2-2-2-- x2

Bridge

D#|--------------------------------
A#|--------------------------------
G#|--------------------------------
D#|--------------------------------
A#|--------------------------------
D#|-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-4-4-4-4-7----

D#|-0-0-0-0-0--------
A#|-0-0-0-0-0--------
G#|-0-0-0-0-0-------- You can work out the rhythm here.
D#|-7-7-7-9-7--------- It's a bit difficult to tab but
A#|-5-7-5-9-7--------- pretty easy to hear.
D#|-5-7-5-9-7---------

D#|----------------------------------
A#|----------------------------------
G#|----------------------------------
D#|-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7
A#|-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-5-5-5-5-7-7-7-7
D#|-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-4-4-4-4-7-7-7-7

D#|-0-0-0-0-0--------
A#|-0-0-0-0-0--------
G#|-0-0-0-0-0--------
D#|-7-7-7-9-7--------
A#|-5-7-5-9-7--------
D#|-5-7-5-9-7--------

Instrumental

Chorus chords

Outro

Max uses muted strings to end the song (singing, "Did it hurt, did it hurt..." etc) Its quite an easy rhythm - just have a listen!

Enjoy!

Alternate picking exercise

Heres a great little exercise. Take the following chord patterns.

E|-------10--10----7---7---------------
B|-------9---8-----8---9---------------
G|-------8---9-----9---8---------------
D|-------7---7-----10--10--------------
A|----------------------------------------
E|----------------------------------------

As you can see, each chord change involves either swapping your index and pinkie fingers or your middle and ring fingers.

You can start by just practicing the chords but once you can change easily, try picking D U D U through the chords as you change. It's a great workout for your alternative picking technique! You can try other picking patterns such as sweeping all downstrokes, upstrokes, U D U D etc.

Newton Faulkner - Let's get together

Anyone loving Newton's latest album? Eargrabbing, catchy guitar riffs with somewhat beautiful vocal melodies. I tabbed the intro for my brother in law the other week:

Newton Faulkner - Let's get together tab

capo 1

E|-----2----------2--------2----------2---------0-------
B|-----3----------3--------3----------3---------3-------
G|-----2----------2--------2----------2---------2-------
D|--0------2-----------0-------2------------------------
A|-------------2-------------------2---------0-----------
E|--------------------------------------------------------

Make a D shape with your middle, ring and little finger and use your index finger to play the bass notes. For the last chord, just take off your ring finger to make a Dsus2 chord.

Interacting with music

Sometimes I want to write music and I can't get myself inspired. In my experience, music takes on so many different levels. Its not just as simple as playing the guitar. I believe each level leads on to each other, its important to do it in the right order!

1. Listening to music

The obvious way of enjoying music and sadly the only step most people ever take. Listening to music is amazing, its where we all started. It can do all sorts of things, conjure up all sorts of memories and invoke all sorts of emotions and thoughts. For one, a smile, for another an unfortunate memory.

2. Seeing live music

Gigs, concerts etc. This is really just an extension of the first point. Not just listening but now we are breathing, experiencing first hand a tangible expression of music.

3. Practicing music

Listening and seeing inspires you to practice. Countless times have I seen an incredible gig and just been blown away with 2 thoughts; 1. Wow they were so amazing, I feel like my own musical abilities are terrible and 2. I have a desire to become that good, to write that well, to be involved in something similarly beautiful if not more so. The latter thought always replaces the former quite quickly! I get inspired to practice from listening to other peoples unique ideas and musical creations.

4. Playing music

This is about playing purely for fun. When you've practiced enough, your muscle memory retains everything you have learnt and you are able to truly enjoy the experience of playing your guitar without worrying about if you get it right enough because you've spent enough time doing it in the practicing stage.

5. Writing music

I find this stage comes easiest when I'm inspired, have practiced enough to put my ideas quickly onto my guitar and am in the mood for playing something. For me, this is probably one of my favourite levels of interacting with music. It's so rewarding, knowing that what you are playing is written by you, its unique, different to everything that has ever gone before it.

6. A combination of all of the above

I deliberately haven't mentioned loads of other aspects. Gigging is a mixture of writing and playing while practice prepares for all of them. Dancing is another (although definitely not a forté of mine ;))

I find that if my guitar playing is unbalanced in one of these areas I get discouraged and I'm not sure why. If I don't practice enough its easy to be frustrated by your mistakes when you're trying to apply something new to your writing and similar if all you do is practice then you get tired easily. If you're struggling with any of the areas above, just remember, go back to step 1 and get inspired. Go see some wicked bands, listen to some new music you wouldn't usually. Get inspired.

Peace.