The Steel Guitar Forum

How to smoothly go from a G Major to a Gsus2 on my E9th neck. I have thought about this and thought and thought and then a bell went off. Ask the Forum. So, given the 3 primary G major positions (3 open, 6FA, 10AB), how can I slide to a Gsus2 and make it sound pretty? Or, what might be a good chord substitute for a Gsus2? Thanks for all your help.

Pedals down i.e. 10th fret: release A pedal. No pedals i.e. 3rd fret: if you have a 7th string raise, use that to get the G maj, release and you have sus 2. If you have whole step lower on 6th string that will do it. A pedal F lever i.e. 6th fret: hmm. I don't think there's anything nearby*. You could release A and F and slide up to 10th fret with B down, or with the 6th string lower slide to 3rd fret. I don't have a 6 string lower except on a Franklin pedal so I can't vouch for that one but all the rest are easy enough to do.

D sus 4 (d, g, a) is a substitute for G sus 2 (g, a, d).

*Of course there is: release E string raises and engage E string lowers.

To get a sus2 chord, simply drop the 3rd scale degree to the 2nd degree and play root, 2nd and 5th.
In the no pedals position, the thirds are on strings 3 and 6. The lever that drops string six a whole tone will do this. You can also accomplish this move by dropping back two frets as you engage your C pedal after picking 6-5-4.
In the 10AB position you just rock off the A pedal while keeping the B pedal down.
The AF position is a little trickier as you need to release the E raise (F) lever and engage the E lower lever. Depending on how your e levers are set up, you may or may not be able to get this one smooth.

Here is a little free advice. If you don't know or have trouble figuring out which scale degrees are on which strings, or how to put together common chords, a little investment of time in learning some basic theory will pay big dividends down the road, especially if you want to move beyond playing other peoples tabs.
I believe Mark van Allen has a short course that should get you up and running with a minimal investment of time and money, and open a lot of doors for you.
Good luck and happy picking.

Hi William,

For the G major pick groups 1 and 2 at the 3rd fret no pedals..than slide back to fret 1 and as you slide press pedal C only to get the Gsus2...Its just called a G2 chord in most circles....

If you lower your 6th string G# to F# you can simply hit groups 2, 3, or 4 for the Gmajor at fret3....than lower the lever for the G2 chord

A G2 chord I played recently on a Justin Moore track was group 2 at fret 3 and then I lowered the PF4 pedal to play a G2 with an 11 in it......That is a cool voicing to play when you are asked to play a G2 chord......

Modern chord construction over the last 30 years has really changed.....I advise you to learn the intervals so you can see where the options are..

Merry Christmas!
PF

If group 2 is 8-6-5, then you were playing GAC, Paul? Cool sound, kind of a modern,cluster thing. I don't have the PF pedal on my uni but I can get that move using P7 at the first fret, strings 7-6-5.
And a merry Christmas to you too.

3rd fret I like strings 5 4 1 with 1 beeing raised (F#-G#) then releasing 1st string from "3rd" down to a "2nd"


6th fret Strings 8 (5) 3 2
A + F levers engaged plus the 2nd string lowered a whole tone, release 2nd string lever to raise "root" to the "9th".

I also like strings 9 8 6 5 w A+B and 9th string lowered (D-C#) then release the A pedal to lower the "3rd" down to a "2nd"

B.Erlandsen
Zumsteel S12extE9 7+7

Thank you, everyone, for your responses. I can't wait to try them out when I get home. Bill

Paul Franklin wrote:For the G major pick groups 1 and 2 at the 3rd fret no pedals..than slide back to fret 1 and as you slide press pedal C only to get the Gsus2PF

This is the classic way. It's what the C pedal was put there for, back in the day of pull-release guitars when you couldn't lower 6 as well as raise it. The minor triad with the B pedal was a by-product. It's still a move worth practising even if you have the whole-tone lower on a lever.

(There's a parallel on the C6 neck where P7 physically raises 3 & 4 but is really a means of lowering 5 & 6 a whole tone.)

Sus2 in the A/F position is a good argument for having E raise and lower on different knees. Then you can get exactly the same effect in all three postions.

Here's another very smooth way .
I have a LVK that raises top B up to D. If you play G ( strings 456) at 10 with AB and engage LVK you get G sus4 ...now release LVK and pedal A and whilst still ringing strike 2string prelowered by semitone ( using 2 string lower lever )then lower it again another semitone with lever.

I think these have all been covered above:
A + F -> A + E (6th fret)
A + B -> B (10th fret)
Pedals up -> slide back two frets and press C (3rd to 1st fret)
The last one can be tricky to make sound right, but if you have a Franklin lever that lowers string 6 to F# you can also use that in the pedals up position 3rd fret without sliding the bar. As someone mentioned, the A + F move can be tricky as well. If your E raise and lower are on the same knee, the closer your levers are together, the smoother it might sound.

I KNEW I would not be dissappointed. Tried many of these on my PSG and love the sounds. Thank you all!

One I have learned recently is lower string 9 a half tone, use the B pedal. String 9 becomes the third, 6 becomes root, 5 is the two note, and string 4 is the fifth.

I hope everyone understands that an add 9 chord is the same chord as what we are discussing concerning the G2....On sessions I play each one for the other when there is a melody of a fill or solo I want to emphasize... .....The G2 has a 9 between the root and 3rd....The add 9 has the interval placed after the 5th

I thought I understood but...
A suspended chord has no 3rd, it's suspended in favor of either the 2nd or the 4th. You wouldn't play the root 2nd and 3rd all together as part of a chord, would you?

Brian Hollands wrote:I thought I understood but...
A suspended chord has no 3rd, it's suspended in favor of either the 2nd or the 4th. You wouldn't play the root 2nd and 3rd all together as part of a chord, would you?

That's my understanding, too: the 'sus 2' is a no-third chord for a little tonal ambiguity. First time I heard the term was to describe some Steely Dan chords. But I'd defer to Paul on contemporary usage in pro studios, in my limited studio experience I don't think anyone's ever given me a chart, nevermind one with non-triad chords.

Question for Paul: When you see G2 and throw in an 11th or treat it as a 9th, do producers ever give you a hard time because they want that specific stripped down sound or are they generally cool with and/or expecting extensions (or they are looking for your input)?

Jim R., that chord voiced 1-2-3-5 and its inversions has been referred to as the Steely Dan or Mu chord; I tend to think of it as the Valdy chord as it is a musical favourite of one of our old BC folk icons.

Check out this article. https://www.jazzguitar.be/blog/steely-dan-chords/

Pity I didn't find this site sooner.

Chris Reesor wrote:Jim R., that chord voiced 1-2-3-5 and its inversions has been referred to as the Steely Dan or Mu chord; I tend to think of it as the Valdy chord as it is a musical favourite of one of our old BC folk icons.

Check out this article. https://www.jazzguitar.be/blog/steely-dan-chords/

Pity I didn't find this site sooner.

Thanks, Chris, that is what I was dimly and inaccurately remembering. I'll bear the Valdy connection in mind next time someone asks me to play them a rock & roll song.

If they want a sus chord they write it as a G sus....I have worked on a lot of reading dates and can honestly say I have not see a sus2 written on a chart.....

Franklin wrote:If they want a sus chord they write it as a G sus....I have worked on a lot of reading dates and can honestly say I have not see a sus2 written on a chart.....

Does that also apply to a sus4 chord?

Richard,

The answer is yes...We are given freedom to embellish chords on the chart by adding more color....I also never see a sus 4 written....its notated this way, G sus...
So its an add to or take away from procedure when playing a studio chart...
Merry Christmas
Paul

Interesting. Thanks for the info and Happy New Year!