C7sus4 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C7sus4 — shell voicings
C7sus4 is C, F, G and Bb — C7 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.
C7sus4 notes and formula
| C | F | G | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 | ♭7 |
Dominant — it points a fifth down, but softly.
Also written C7sus or C dominant 7 sus 4. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C7sus4
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
C7sus4 has 7 of them, on the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, strings 5-3-2 and strings 6-4-3, from the 3rd fret up to the 15th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the C shape at the 3rd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xxx566 — no barre and only 3 fretted notes. None of the shapes for C7sus4 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 4 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x33311 | 1st fret | C, root position | F | barred |
| x35363 | 3rd fret | C, root position | G | barred |
| xxx566 | 5th fret | C, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| xx5566 | 5th fret | G, 2nd inversion | Bb | all fretted |
| 8-10-8-10-8-8 | 8th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| x-x-10-12-11-13 | 10th fret | C, root position | F | all fretted |
| x-15-15-15-13-13 | 13th fret | C, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 15 drop 2, 10 drop 3 and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C7sus4, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (D) and the 13 (A).
How to use C7sus4
Voice by voice, C7sus4 → F. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In C7sus4 | Moves | In F |
|---|---|---|
| C, the root | stays where it is | C, the fifth |
| F, the fourth | stays where it is | F, the root |
| G, the fifth | falls a whole tone | F, the root |
| Bb, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | A, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of C7sus4 belongs to C minor (the i), D minor (the ♭VII), Eb major (the vi), F major (the V), F minor (the v), G minor (the iv), Ab major (the iii) and Bb major (the ii).
What to play over C7sus4
Every note of C7sus4 is in C minor pentatonic, C blues, C mixolydian, C dorian and C natural minor.
Chords near C7sus4
Change one note of C7sus4 and you have Csus4 (drop the flat seventh), Csus2sus4 (the flat seventh becomes a ninth), Cm7 (the fourth becomes a minor third), C7 (the fourth becomes a major third), C7/G (the fourth becomes a major third) or C11 (add the ninth).
C7sus4 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 C7sus4’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.