In a previous post, I listed examples of melodic suspensions. But I didn’t do a very good job of explaining how they work. So I will rectify that here.
Suspensions are a temporary misalignment of chords and melody. I will explain this idea more completely below, but first listen to this little tune I wrote that gives examples of various kinds of suspensions.
That last one is technically a “retardation”, but I would rather call it a suspension because a) it acts exactly like one, so why have a whole separate term for it, and b) that term has not aged well and we should retire it.
Here’s the verbal explanation of suspensions, using measures five and six of my tune above. Say you are in the key of C major, and there’s an F chord moving to a C chord. The melody note on top of the F chord is A, the third of the chord. The melody note on top of the C chord is G, the fifth of the chord. So far, so basic. But now imagine that when we move from the F chord to the C chord, we stay on the note A for a beat or two before we move down to G. That A is not a chord tone of C, so it creates a feeling of mild suspense. When it moves down to the expected chord tone G, the suspense gets relieved.
You can hear some examples of suspensions from my older post. Here are three more.
Bob Dylan, “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”
The suspension comes at the end of the first refrain at 1:28, on the line “I’m only sighing”. Bob sings the words “I’m only” on the note A over a B7 chord. This is a chord tone, the seventh. On the word “sighing”, the chord changes to E. Bob sings “sigh” on A, which is not part of the E chord. Then he resolves to the E chord’s third, G-sharp, on “-ing.” This is a classic 4-3 suspension, so named because Bob sings the 4th and the 3rd of the E chord.
Roberta Flack, “Gone Away”
The bridge of this tune is one of my new favorite things in the world. The suspension comes at 2:59. Roberta sings C over the Ab chord. This is a chord tone, the third of Ab. Then the chord changes to Eb, and she sings C again, but now it’s not a part of the chord. Finally, she resolves to B-flat, which is a chord tone of Eb. This is called a 6-5 suspension because she is moving from the sixth to the fifth of the Eb chord. She gives the suspension extra power by delaying it significantly, and by backing it with a truly epic arrangement.
Louis Armstrong, “When The Saints Go Marching In”
The suspension comes at 0:53, on the line “Oh how I want to be in that number.” Most of the line is on a G chord, and Louis sings “in that” on D, the fifth of the chord. Then he sings “number” over a C chord. But he continues to sing “num-” on D, and now it’s no longer a chord tone. He resolves to C on “ber”. This is a 2-1 suspension because he’s moving from the 2nd to the root of the C chord.
So, there you have it. Suspended chords are a common vertical sonority in pop, rock and R&B, but melodic suspensions are not all that common. I associate them more with classical music, especially choral music. My students point out that musical theater songs use them too. It’s a nice technique, but I can see why it’s not very common in current pop. If you weren’t necessarily expecting the main melody notes to be chord tones in the first place, then suspensions don’t have the same feeling of suspense, and resolving them lacks the drama it has in more Western European-sounding music. But they do give a song that nice old-world touch.