About Bbsus2sus4 — drop 3 voicings
Bbsus2sus4 is Bb, C, Eb and F — Bbsus4 with the second added underneath the fourth.
It sounds ringing and deliberately ambiguous. Read another way it is a stack of fourths, which is why it works as a pad rather than as a chord that resolves.
Bbsus2sus4 notes and formula
| Bb | C | Eb | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
Texture more than function — still no third.
Also written Bbsus2/4 or Bb suspended 2nd and 4th. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bbsus2sus4
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.
Bbsus2sus4 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: Bb in the bass, C in the bass, Eb in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the C shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, 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 6635xx — no barre and low, at the 3rd fret. None of the shapes for Bbsus2sus4 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 3 of the 5 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x11311 | 1st fret | Bb, root position | F | barred |
| 6635xx | 3rd fret | Bb, root position | C | all fretted |
| 668868 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | C | barred |
| x-13-10-10-11-11 | 10th fret | Bb, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| x-13-13-15-13-13 | 13th fret | Bb, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 14 drop 2 voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Bbsus2sus4
In which keys. Every note of Bbsus2sus4 belongs to C minor (the ♭VII), C# major (the vi), Eb major (the V), F minor (the iv), G minor (the ♭III), Ab major (the ii), Bb major (the I) and Bb minor (the i).
What to play over Bbsus2sus4
Every note of Bbsus2sus4 is in Bb major, Bb mixolydian, Bb dorian, Bb natural minor and Bb harmonic minor.
Chords near Bbsus2sus4
Change one note of Bbsus2sus4 and you have Bbsus2 (drop the fourth), Bbsus4 (drop the ninth), Bbadd9 (the fourth becomes a major third), Bbmadd9 (the fourth becomes a minor third), Bb7sus4 (the ninth becomes a flat seventh) or Bb11 (add the flat seventh).
Bbsus2sus4 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 Bbsus2sus4’s sound and use this page follows Robert Rawlins & Nor Eddine Bahha, Jazzology (Hal Leonard, 2005). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.