Bb7sus4 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Bb7sus4 — drop 3 voicings
Bb7sus4 is Bb, Eb, F and Ab — Bb7 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.
Dominant — it points a fifth down, but softly.
Bb7sus4 notes and formula
| Bb | Eb | F | Ab |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 | ♭7 |
Also written Bb7sus or Bb dominant 7 sus 4. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bb7sus4
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.
Bb7sus4 has 8 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: Bb in the bass, Eb in the bass, F in the bass and Ab in the bass. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the nut.
4 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.
Play Bb7sus4 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 9 (C) or the 13 (G).
All 6 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x13141, 1st fret, Bb, root position, top note F, barred
- xxx344, 3rd fret, Bb, root position, top note Ab, all fretted
- xx3344, 3rd fret, F, 2nd inversion, top note Ab, all fretted
- 686866, 6th fret, Bb, root position, top note Bb, barred
- x-x-8-10-9-11, 8th fret, Bb, root position, top note Eb, all fretted
- x-13-13-13-11-11, 11th fret, Bb, root position, top note Eb, barred
How to use Bb7sus4
In a phrase:Fm7→Bb7sus4→Ebmaj7— the ii–V–I of Eb.
Voice by voice, Bb7sus4 → Eb. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In Bb7sus4 | Moves | In Eb |
|---|---|---|
| Bb, the root | stays where it is | Bb, the fifth |
| Eb, the fourth | stays where it is | Eb, the root |
| F, the fifth | falls a whole tone | Eb, the root |
| Ab, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | G, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of Bb7sus4 belongs to C minor (the ♭VII), C# major (the vi), Eb major (the V), Eb minor (the v), F minor (the iv), F# major (the iii), Ab major (the ii) and Bb minor (the i).
What to play over Bb7sus4
Every note of Bb7sus4 is in Bb minor pentatonic, Bb blues, Bb mixolydian, Bb dorian and Bb natural minor.
Chords near Bb7sus4
Change one note of Bb7sus4 and you have Bbsus4 (drop the flat seventh), Bbsus2sus4 (the flat seventh becomes the second), Bbm7 (the fourth becomes the minor third), Bb7 (the fourth becomes the major third) or Bb11 (add the ninth).
Bb7sus4 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.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.