The "sus" chords..."giving in to gravity"...

Suspended chords are a great way of extending your "musical real estate" and giving your songs a unique feel to them.  Although these are very popular and highly used in certain pop genres, good use of the "sue" chords can really get you out of the writing block and noticed in a different way without having to use any alternate tuning or anything like that.  By the way, nothing wrong with alternate tuning, I just think it may take from your artistic element.  It's like learning a new instrument just to get new musical ideas.  But more of that on a later post.

A good composer should first understand the musical feel of the suspended chord and the listening emotions involved.  A suspended chord makes you want to resolve...it makes you want to give in to gravity.

The theory behind them is that it uses tones that are not part of the triad (1 - 3 - 5) in order to make the listener want to resolve to those tone.  Therefore, keep in mind that these suspended chords will usually be tabbed out or written with the word "sus" in front of the number.  Also remember that if you are playing a "sus9" chord, this doesn't mean that you are playing a full 9 chord.  You are creating a suspended tone with the triad and 9th tone (or 2nd).

Feel free to share any comments you may have on this topic and any songwriting tips...