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ToneGym

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Joe Brewer
Jan 28, 2023
Sus2 and sus4 sound the same to me at the moment. It’s so frustrating :(
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Sebastian Perry
Jan 28, 2023
Try to hear the wedding song for sus4. You know, Here comes the bride... , in order to hear that perfect 4th.
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Miles Walker
Jan 28, 2023
I was the same! But I kept going with inversionist and it eventually becomes clearer!
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Jason Blank
Jan 28, 2023
I'm not amazing at it, but I try to hear if the (middle) tone wants to resolve up or down.. if up its sus2, if down its sus4.. I'd love to know what other people do!
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Neil Gilmartin
Jan 29, 2023
A helpful difference to consider is whether that middle note wants to rise to the major 3rd (sus 2) or fall to the major 3rd (sus 4). If you can hum that rising or falling resolution to yourself, that can help distinguish them. (Oops! Just noticed that Jason already said this!)

Or some people instead find it more useful to imagine the sus 2 falling to the root and the sus 4 rising to the fifth.
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Neil Gilmartin
Jan 29, 2023
@Sebastian Perry, the ‘Here Comes The Bride’ trick has helped me in all sorts of games 😁
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Sebastian Perry
Jan 29, 2023
Yep, along with the Star Wars and Simpsons themes lmao
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IAN TANG
Jan 29, 2023
Aren't they the same thing in inversion form? I often thinke P4 and P5 are the same thing (in different inversions)
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Neil Gilmartin
Jan 30, 2023
@Ian Tang, yes. A perfect fifth up is the same note (albeit an octave apart) as a perfect fourth down. And a perfect fourth up is the same note as a perfect fifth down, again separated by an octave. That concept confused me for more than a while!
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Passawat Kingngern
Jan 30, 2023
Another kinda funny but easy tip for me is to look for the M2. If you can hear and sing the ROOT clearly but not the FIFTH then the M2 is with the fifth = sus4. If you can hear and sing the FIFTH clearly but not the ROOT then the M2 is with the root = sus2. After some time you'll automatically recognize them.
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Passawat Kingngern
Jan 30, 2023
but this won't work if you're doing the Inversionist tho but I'd say one step at a time 😂
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Andres Jacobo
Jan 31, 2023
jeSUS, I feel your pain bro

Trick for sus4: Wedding song, 'Here comes the bride'
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Don't get started. LMAO, some min and dim AND p4 and p5 or V-I and IV-I sound the same for me 🤷‍♂️
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Neil Gilmartin
Jan 31, 2023
It’s really common for 4ths and 5ths to be perceived as sounding the same because they are the inverse of each other, so don’t be too hard on yourself.
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Paul A
Feb 09, 2023
Concentrating on finding where the fourth works for me. In other words, look for the isolated note. If it's the fifth, it's a sus2, if it's the root, it's a sus4.
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Sebastian Gonzalez
Feb 09, 2023
I may be a little bit late to the conversation, but try training yourself to hear the attraction of the suspended 4th to the 3rd of the chord. A sus2 chord is a much more stable chord. You might want to play them side by side as you train with the game: it worked a while back for me. That said, they are two really close-sounding chords because they use the same intervals and they are missing the third, so don't be too stressed out if you don't get it as fast, it takes a little bit of practice... enjoy the process!
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Joe Brewer
Feb 09, 2023
Thank you all for your suggestions. I’ll keep on practising 😃
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Adam Noveskey
Feb 10, 2023
I was in the same boat a couple months ago. It is very difficult to tell one from the other at first. Even now, I can tell some sus2's and sus4's better than others.
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Victor Wilburn
Feb 10, 2023
@Sebastian Gonzalez: I was intrigued by your advice, so I played around with it a bit. For me personally, I found it more useful to modify it slightly. So instead of thinking of the 4th being attracted to the 3rd, while the the 2nd is not, I found it more useful to think about WHICH third each attracts to. After all, the 4th is a half-step away from the M3, but a 2nd is a half-step way from the m3. Thinking in this context, the sus2 started to almost take on a minor flavor to my ear.
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Jason Blank
Feb 11, 2023
Interesting strategy, I will try it. Although outside of training, in a musical context, I can see it potentially taking longer to image the m3 if the song's in a major key!
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Victor Wilburn
Feb 14, 2023
@Jason Blank: Not necessarily. Our ears are used to hearing minor chords in a major key. After all, in any key, major or minor, three of the diatonic triads are major, three are minor, and one is diminished. So a variety of chord flavors fits within a key. (Of course, that's without going into all the ways non-diatonic tones can be introduced pretty smoothly.)
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Brandon A Waszak
Feb 20, 2023
Hey Joe! You really need to listen for the fourth in the chord. The Sus4 will sound less dissonant. Hard to describe what something sounds like, but really try to hear that 4th. To me it sounds more suspended. Hopefully that helps. Good luck!