Spicing up Major Chords with the Easiest Sus4 Routine for Ukulele

Posted by on March 16th 2021 @ 7:39 pm

One of the easiest ways to ornament (i.e. spice up) your plain vanilla major chords (especially when they’re hanging out for more than a couple of beats) is to add suspended fourths.

What is a suspended fourth?

When you take the middle note of the chord (the third) and raise it half a step it becomes a ‘suspended’ fourth.

Why is it called suspended?

Because the fourth has a tendency in our ears to want to resolve back down to the third, therefore it is ‘suspended’ over the third and adds suspense an anticipation of the resolution (anticipations are however a different kind of ornament).

How can I learn which note to raise to create a suspended fourth in a major chord?

The middle note, or third, of a major chord changes position on the strings depending on which chord you’re playing on the ukulele. On C it is on string 2, but on G it is on string 1. To make things easy for me, and anyone else interested, I’ve created a chart of the ‘easiest’ sus4 fingerings for each of the 12 major chords. You can download it right here:

Easiest Sus4 Routine for UkuleleDownload

What are some ideas for using this?

You will notice that I did NOT use all the ‘root position’ chords in this chart. For some chords, making the transition between major and sus4 is much easier further up the neck. You’ll also notice that some of the barre chords repeat the same patterns (Bb & B as well as Db, D, Eb, E, F# & Ab); this means that there are less patterns to memorize than you might think.

  • Play through all the chords.
  • Play the idiomatic Major to sus4 back to Major that you find in a lot of songs.
  • Pull out some songs you know and throw in some sus4 chords on major chords that hang around for 3 or more beats. Sometimes it will work fantastic and others it won’t. Experiment.
  • Use a pencil to mark the instances of sus4 that really add to the emotion of the piece. It can be overdone and lose its effect, so be careful.

Happy sussing!

Ryan's favorite starter ukulele: The Enya Nova U Concert Ukulele 23” on Amazon sounds great, is easy to play, in tune and nearly indestructable. "I left it in the car through the heat of summer to see what would happen, and it still plays beautifully."

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