Asus4 guitar chord
Three notes across one string set.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Asus4 — triad voicings
Asus4 is A, D and E — A with the third replaced by the fourth.
It sounds suspended mid-air. Played before the plain chord it is the oldest tension-and-release move there is.
Asus4 notes and formula
| A | D | E |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 |
Suspended — classically it resolves down onto the third.
Also written Asus or A suspended 4th. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Asus4
Three notes on one string set. No seventh, so nothing is claimed about the chord beyond its quality.
Thin on their own, excellent over a bass line or against someone else’s harmony.
Asus4 has 50 of them, on the top three strings, the high-middle three, the middle four strings, the top four strings, the bottom four strings, the bottom three strings, the low-middle three, 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 and E in the bass. The one to learn first is the A shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
6 of them sit on the middle four strings, 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 x00x30 — no barre and 3 open strings. 2 of the 8 shapes here sit in open position. 1 of the 8 needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x02230 | open position | A, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| x00x30 | open position | A, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| 5x2235 | 2nd fret | A, root position | A | all fretted |
| xx2235 | 2nd fret | E, 2nd inversion | A | all fretted |
| 577755 | 5th fret | A, root position | A | barred |
| x-x-7-9-10-10 | 7th fret | A, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-12-12-9-10-x | 9th fret | A, root position | A | all fretted |
| x-12-14-14-15-12 | 12th fret | A, root position | E | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Asus4
Voice by voice, Asus4 → A. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In Asus4 | Moves | In A |
|---|---|---|
| A, the root | stays where it is | A, the root |
| D, the fourth | falls a semitone | C#, the major third |
| E, the fifth | stays where it is | E, the fifth |
In which keys. Every note of Asus4 belongs to C major (the vi), D major (the V), D minor (the v), E minor (the iv), F major (the iii), F# minor (the ♭III), G major (the ii), A major (the I), A minor (the i) and B minor (the ♭VII).
What to play over Asus4
Every note of Asus4 is in A minor pentatonic, A blues, A major, A mixolydian and A dorian.
Chords near Asus4
Change one note of Asus4 and you have A (the fourth becomes a major third), Am (the fourth becomes a minor third), Asus2 (the fourth becomes a ninth), Asus2sus4 (add the ninth), A5 (drop the fourth) or A7sus4 (add the flat seventh).
Asus4 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 Asus4’s sound and use this page follows Edward Aldwell & Carl Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading (Schirmer / Cengage, 4th ed., 2011). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.