Page 23
The sus2 combines nicely with the sus4, as a finger is added, taken off, etc. John Lennon used this on 'Happy
Christmas (War Is Over)' and you'll also find it in 'Needles and Pins', 'So Sad About Us', 'I Need You', 'I'll Feel A
Whole Lot Better', 'Summer Of 69' and 'Brass in Pocket'.
You can play effective open-string versions of Asus2, Csus2, Dsus2, Fsus2 and Gsus2.
Suspended second chord shapesFifth Chords
This type of chord is related to the sus2 and sus4 because, once again, the third has been removed. C5 is C G. A C5
chord could be played in C major or C minor. You can solo over it using a number of different scales and there won't
be a clash -possibly The Clash, but not a clash. This harmonic neutrality makes it suitable for hard rock.
Open any book of rock transcriptions and you'll see loads of these. They come in two basic forms. There's the
"power chord" fifth (C G), possibly with the root doubled an octave higher (C G C), usually played on the bottom
three strings of the guitar with any quantity of distortion. This is for aggressive music, be it punk, grunge, hard rock
or HM. No matter how different their politics, lyrics or haircuts, Green Day, Nirvana, Queen, Guns 'N Roses and
Metallica are all united in using fifths. For this type, there are open-string shapes for A5, C5, D5, E5 and G5.
In the other form of this chord, the two notes are doubled or tripled across the strings. Hence the G5 favoured by
Noel Gallagher, which goes from bottom to top G × D G D G (A-string muted), and Pete Townshend's A5 (A E A E
A) from the A-string up. With a stark, bold tone, this type of chord sounds good strummed in moody and aggressive
acoustic stuff.