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!
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.
@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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
@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.
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!
@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.)
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!
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