Re: sus7 chords in \chordmode

[Brett Duncan]

On 27/01/15 6:15 AM, Tim McNamara wrote:

On Jan 26, 2015, at 1:32 AM, Johan Vromans <address@hidden> wrote:

On Sun, 25 Jan 2015 19:18:52 -0600
Tim McNamara <address@hidden> wrote:

I have repeatedly run into difficulties getting Lilypond to properly
render sus7 chord names in \chordmode.  It comes up with silly things
like "G7sus4 3” and the like.  What is the correct syntax to get a simple
“Gsus7” to print?

To not answer your question: I would not use Gsus7 since it is ambiguous.
Gsus4 (or Gsus) has a suspended 4th, Gsus2 has a suspended 2nd, so Gsus7
makes you think that the 7th is suspended -- which is not the case.

G7sus (or G7sus4) is the unambiguous way to express this chord.

See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspended_chord .
Chapter 8 of "Standardized Chord Symbol Notation" by Carl Brandt & Clinton
Roemer.

I have the Roemer-Brandt book and will double check that, thanks for pointing it out.  I have been modifying the pop-chords.ly file for my own use to use the Roemer-Brandt terminology and will make that available once I have completed it.  My recollection- without checking, of course- was that R-B used “sus” for plain suspended 4th chords and “sus7” for suspended 4th dominant chords.  My memory may well be faulty on this (again, as it has been so often as my wife reminds me).  If they use “7sus” or “7sus4” I will go with that.

Tim

You're not mistaken - I have also seen "sus" and "sus7" used in the same way on rock and R&B charts. It's not a notation I would use myself, and I agree with Johan that G7sus4 is the unambiguous way to express the chord. But as has been pointed out before, there is no agreed standard for chord notation.

It's worth noting that G7sus can be interpreted differently in a jazz context - the wikipedia article Johan linked to mentions this, though the analysis is not entirely accurate IMO.

With regard to Roemer & Brandt, I think it's an interesting reference and a useful discussion starter, but it seems to me to be somewhat at odds with contemporary practice.

Brett