Workshop 29 mini-test

1. What distinguishes G7sus from G7?

2. Why can a sus chord remain stable instead of resolving?

3. What happens harmonically when B is introduced into G7sus?

4. What does F major triad over G produce?

5. What does A minor triad over G produce?

6. What is planing?

7. Why are quartal voicings especially useful over sus harmony?

8. What is the difference between G7sus→G7→C and G7sus→A♭7sus?

9. Why can removing the 3rd make harmony more sophisticated rather than less complete?

10. What is the deepest lesson of Workshop 29?

Answers

1. G7sus replaces the major 3rd B with the suspended 4th C; G7 contains B and therefore has much stronger dominant identity.
2. In jazz/modal language, the 4th can function as a permanent chord member rather than a temporary classical suspension.
3. The chord becomes much more recognizably G dominant, and the ear begins expecting resolution toward C.
4. F-A-C = ♭7, 9, 11 over G.
5. A-C-E = 9, 11, 13 over G.
6. Moving the same or similar harmonic shape in parallel to a different pitch center rather than connecting chords through conventional functional resolution.
7. Their open fourth-based construction avoids strongly defining major/minor quality and blends naturally with suspended/modal harmony.
8. The first turns modal suspension into functional dominant resolution; the second simply moves the suspended sound-world to another tonal center.
9. Because the missing 3rd removes strong major/minor and functional information, leaving room for melody, modal color, and upper structures to define the sound more flexibly.
10. Harmonic ambiguity can be an intentional musical resource, and one of the most powerful ways to control it is deciding when the 3rd should—and should not—exist.

The central lesson of Workshop 29 is:

Sometimes the most important note in a chord is the one you deliberately leave out.