Re: Add4 or sus that thang?

On Nov 9, 3:08 pm, Charmed Snark <sn...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My curiosity was peaked recently about the difference
between sus and add4 chords. The following is the
result of some limited resaerch:

A lot of folks will say a Gsus (Gsus4) chord is a Gadd4,
with the 3rd dropped (also that "sus4" is redundant in
that "sus" implies the 4th unless otherwise noted like
in Gsus2).

But then a jazz guy points out from "The Jazz Theory
Book" that this is not quite right in:

"A persistent myth is that 'the 4th takes the place
of the 3rd in a suspended chord'. This was true at
one time, but in the 1960s a growing acceptance of
dissonance led pianists and guitarists to play sus
voicings with both the 3rd and the 4th. Play figer
3-36 and you'll hear the Fsus chord that Wynton Kelly
plays at the beginning of Miles Davis's recording of
'Someday My Prince Will Come". Note that Wynton plays
both the 3rd (A) and the 4th (Bb) in his voicing. Note
also that Wynton plays the 3rd above the 4th. Jazz
pinaists often include the 3rd in sus chords. Note
that the 3rd is always above the 4th."

From this, it seems to boil down to 2 schools
of thought:

1. triad-based harmony
2. extended harmony (jazz)

In the jazz context, chord names are more for
"improvisation framework" rather than a
specified chord to be performed.

Triad based harmony builds chords from stacking major
and minor 3rds on top of each other, and tend to specify
what should be performed.

What does the agb survey say about this?

Sn.

I say put the book down and play and listen - just my 2c - ed s.
.

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