In AP Music Theory, a suspension is an embellishing tone created when a note is held over (prepared) from one chord into the next, where it becomes a dissonance, then resolves down by step to a chord tone. It follows a three-part pattern: preparation, suspension, resolution.
A suspension is what happens when one voice refuses to move on time. While the rest of the texture changes to a new chord, that voice holds its old note, which now clashes with the new harmony. Then it gives in and steps down to a note that fits. That three-stage process has names you should know cold: preparation (the note is consonant in the first chord), suspension (the same note, now dissonant against the new chord), and resolution (it moves down by step to a consonance).
Suspensions are labeled by the intervals they form above the bass, like 4-3, 7-6, and 9-8 (the first number is the dissonance, the second is its resolution). They sit inside the 18th-century voice-leading world of Topic 4.1, where dissonance isn't random. PIT-4.A.1 says tendency tones resolve 'according to stylistic precedent,' and the suspension is the textbook example: the dissonance is earned through preparation and paid off through stepwise downward resolution. The result is smooth, independent voices, which is exactly what common practice era style is going for.
Suspensions live in Unit 4: Harmony and Voice Leading I, specifically Topic 4.1, supporting learning objective AP Music Theory 4.1.A (identify and apply 18th-century voice-leading procedures through score analysis, error detection, writing, and listening). They also show up in Roman numeral work under 4.1.C, because PIT-2.F.1 says every note in your analysis has to be accounted for. A held-over note that doesn't belong to the chord is often a suspension, and recognizing that keeps your analysis from falling apart. Beyond Unit 4, the suspension is your model for how all dissonance behaves in this style: it's prepared, it's controlled, and it resolves by step. If you understand suspensions, you understand the logic behind chordal seventh resolution and every other embellishing tone the exam throws at you.
Keep studying AP Music Theory Unit 4
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view galleryRetardation (Unit 4)
A retardation is a suspension's mirror image. Both hold a note over from the previous chord, but a suspension resolves DOWN by step while a retardation resolves UP by step. Fiveable practice questions hit this distinction directly, so memorize the direction.
Chordal Seventh Resolution (Unit 4)
The chordal seventh follows the same instinct as a suspension. It's a dissonance that must resolve down by step. The difference is that the seventh is part of the chord itself, while a suspension is an embellishing tone hanging on from the previous chord.
Passing Tone (Unit 4)
Both are embellishing tones, but they get to the dissonance differently. A passing tone moves by step into and out of the dissonance, while a suspension arrives by holding still. If the dissonant note was the same pitch in the previous chord, you're looking at a suspension.
Dissonance and Resolution (Unit 4)
The suspension is the cleanest example of how the common practice era treats dissonance as tension with a planned exit. The dissonant moment is deliberately created and then resolved by step, which is the whole preparation-suspension-resolution cycle in miniature.
Suspensions show up in multiple-choice questions about embellishing tones and melodic direction. A favorite stem asks how a suspension's resolution differs from a retardation's (answer: suspension resolves down, retardation resolves up). Another tests voice-leading judgment, like a 9-8 suspension moving from viio to I, where you still have to resolve the leading tone up to tonic while the suspended voice resolves down. On the FRQs, suspensions appear in figured bass realization (Question 5 in both 2023 and 2024), where figures like 4-3 in the bass line tell you to write the suspension and its resolution in an upper voice. You also need to spot suspensions in score analysis and error detection, since an unprepared or wrongly resolved suspension is a classic planted error.
Both hold a note over from the previous chord into a new harmony, creating a dissonance. The difference is pure direction. A suspension resolves DOWN by step (like 4-3 or 9-8), while a retardation resolves UP by step (most famously 7-8, where scale degree 7 is held over and then rises to tonic). If the held note steps down, it's a suspension; if it steps up, it's a retardation. AP multiple-choice questions test exactly this distinction.
A suspension has three stages: preparation (the note is consonant), suspension (the same note becomes dissonant against the new chord), and resolution (it steps down to a consonance).
Suspensions always resolve downward by step; a held-over note that resolves upward is a retardation, not a suspension.
Suspensions are named by intervals above the bass, with 4-3, 7-6, and 9-8 being the common types you'll see in figured bass.
On the figured bass FRQ, figures like 4-3 instruct you to write a suspension and its stepwise resolution in an upper voice.
A suspension still has to coexist with other tendency tones, so in a 9-8 suspension from viio to I, the leading tone must still resolve up to tonic.
In Roman numeral analysis, suspensions explain notes that don't belong to the chord, which keeps your analysis accountable for every written pitch.
A suspension is an embellishing tone where a note from one chord is held into the next chord, becomes dissonant, and resolves down by step. It follows the pattern preparation, suspension, resolution, and is tested in Unit 4 voice leading.
Down, always. A suspension resolves down by step to a consonant chord tone. If the held-over dissonance resolves up by step, it's called a retardation instead.
Both hold a note over from the previous chord into a dissonance, but a suspension resolves down by step while a retardation resolves up by step. AP multiple-choice questions ask about this melodic-direction difference directly.
They're intervals above the bass. The 4 is the dissonant suspended note (a fourth above the bass), and the 3 is its resolution (a third above the bass). Common suspension types are 4-3, 7-6, and 9-8.
Yes. The figured bass realization FRQ (Question 5 on the 2023 and 2024 exams) can include suspension figures like 4-3, which you have to realize correctly in four voices following 18th-century voice-leading procedures.
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