The Ear Training Lab

Suspended triads are chords where the middle note, the '3rd', has been changed for either the 2nd scale degree, or the 4th scale degree. For example, a C major triad in root position is made from the notes C, E and G, and looks like this:

The chord is made from the 1st, 3rd and 5th scale degrees of the C major scale. If we replace the middle note, that 3rd scale degree, with either the 2nd scale degree or the 4th scale degree we get the chords Csus2 and Csus4 respectively, and they look like this:

Both sus2 and sus4 chords are used a lot in Western music, and each have a characteristic sound. Your job is to identify which is which! Once you have answered take a look at the buttons below the piano image to highlight and hear the sus2 and sus4 variations of the answer chord, along with resolutions to the minor and major triads!

The suspended chords in this game are all triads - meaning they are made up of only three notes - and they are all in root position. Suspended chords can however include chord extensions such as 7ths and can be in inversions - for example our Csus2 triad, which is the notes C, D and G could also be played in first inversion as notes D, G and C, which would look like this:

When naming chords we must also be mindful of all the notes and chord naming conventions to make sure we write it correctly. Using the above diagram as an example, as D is the lowest note, we would name this chord Csus2/D. If there were another C being played further down the piano, the lowest note then would be C, and we would simply name the chord Csus2.

Use the answer buttons or arrow keys: ⬅️ sus2, ➡️ sus4. You can also use the Reference Chords at any time to re-orient your ear.