A7sus4 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About A7sus4 — drop 3 voicings
A7sus4 is A, D, E and G — A7 with the third replaced by the fourth.
It sounds leaning rather than shoving. It keeps the flat seventh’s pull and loses the tritone, so it moves without making a hard cadence.
A7sus4 notes and formula
| A | D | E | G |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 | ♭7 |
Dominant — it points a fifth down, but softly.
Also written A7sus or A dominant 7 sus 4. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play A7sus4
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
A7sus4 has 10 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: A in the bass, D in the bass, E in the bass and G in the bass. The one to learn first is the D shape at the 2nd fret.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with x02030 — no barre and 3 open strings. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x02030 | open position | A, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| xxx233 | 2nd fret | A, root position | G | all fretted |
| xx2233 | 2nd fret | E, 2nd inversion | G | all fretted |
| 575755 | 5th fret | A, root position | A | barred |
| x-0-7-9-8-10 | 7th fret | A, root position | D | 1 open string |
| x-x-7-9-8-10 | 7th fret | A, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-12-12-12-10-10 | 10th fret | A, root position | D | barred |
| x-12-14-12-15-12 | 12th fret | A, root position | E | barred |
| x-x-14-14-15-15 | 14th fret | E, 2nd inversion | G | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 7 shell, 15 drop 2 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of A7sus4, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (B) and the 13 (F#).
How to use A7sus4
Voice by voice, A7sus4 → D. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In A7sus4 | Moves | In D |
|---|---|---|
| A, the root | stays where it is | A, the fifth |
| D, the fourth | stays where it is | D, the root |
| E, the fifth | falls a whole tone | D, the root |
| G, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | F#, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of A7sus4 belongs to C major (the vi), D major (the V), D minor (the v), E minor (the iv), F major (the iii), G major (the ii), A minor (the i) and B minor (the ♭VII).
What to play over A7sus4
Every note of A7sus4 is in A minor pentatonic, A blues, A mixolydian, A dorian and A natural minor.
Chords near A7sus4
Change one note of A7sus4 and you have Asus4 (drop the flat seventh), Asus2sus4 (the flat seventh becomes a ninth), Am7 (the fourth becomes a minor third), A7 (the fourth becomes a major third), A11 (add the ninth) or A/G (the fourth becomes a major third).
A7sus4 is a suspended chord — root and fifth, with a second or fourth where the third would be — or nothing at all. Suspended and power chords on every root.
On A7sus4’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.