Unusual Sus-pects

IF YOU’RE AN aspiring guitarist eager to develop your playing on all fronts, it’s vital that you dedicate time to close-voiced triads. These three-note stalwarts, the notes of which are confined to less than one octave, are the key to endless possibilities for not only rhythm playing but also soloing and compositional ideas. It’s not uncommon for major and minor triads to get the lion’s share of attention while other chords, including diminished and augmented, receive less. But to paraphrase Mick Goodrick, one of the most prolific purveyors of triads on the guitar, all triads are of equal importance and should receive equal attention, so as not to limit one’s musicality.

In the spirit of Mick’s credo, I’m going to take you through two groups of related close-voiced triads that traditionally go under most players’ radars: suspended and altered suspended. While the suspended chord concept also applies to tetrads (four-note chord formulas, such as major, minor and dominant 7th chords) and further extended chords (such as 9ths, 11ths and 13ths), this discussion will focus on three-part harmony.

The open, airy and “suspenseful” sounds of suspended