Working with melodic suspensions
Delaying the resolution of melody notes produces a powerful musical technique we call a ‘suspension’
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We start with a simple melody, accompanied by a new bass note every bar. We’re in C minor and as the melody steps up through three bars, the bassline steps down. Both drop on the final chord. So the bass moves from C, through Bb and Ab to arrive on G for the last bar. There’s no tension in the melody because each phrase of the tune resolves ‘perfectly’ on each downbeat of the bar. So the tune hits a Dover the Bb (part of a Bb chord) and an Eb over the Ab and so on.