About Csus4 — triad voicings
Csus4 is C, F and G — C 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.
Csus4 notes and formula
| C | F | G |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 |
Suspended — classically it resolves down onto the third.
Also written Csus or C suspended 4th. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Csus4
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.
Csus4 has 49 of them, on the high-middle three, the top three strings, the middle four strings, the bottom four strings, the top four strings, the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 15th — every inversion the chord has: C in the bass, F in the bass and G in the bass. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut, 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 x33011 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x33011 | open position | C, root position | F | 1 open string |
| x35563 | 3rd fret | C, root position | G | all fretted |
| 8x5568 | 5th fret | C, root position | C | all fretted |
| 88x068 | 6th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| xx5568 | 5th fret | G, 2nd inversion | C | all fretted |
| 8-10-10-10-8-8 | 8th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| x-x-10-12-13-13 | 10th fret | C, root position | F | all fretted |
| x-15-15-12-13-x | 12th fret | C, root position | C | all fretted |
How to use Csus4
Voice by voice, Csus4 → C. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In Csus4 | Moves | In C |
|---|---|---|
| C, the root | stays where it is | C, the root |
| F, the fourth | falls a semitone | E, the major third |
| G, the fifth | stays where it is | G, the fifth |
In which keys. Every note of Csus4 belongs to C major (the I), 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), A minor (the ♭III) and Bb major (the ii).
What to play over Csus4
Every note of Csus4 is in C minor pentatonic, C blues, C major, C mixolydian and C dorian.
Chords near Csus4
Change one note of Csus4 and you have C (the fourth becomes a major third), Cm (the fourth becomes a minor third), Csus2 (the fourth becomes a ninth), Csus2sus4 (add the ninth), C5 (drop the fourth) or C7sus4 (add the flat seventh).
Csus4 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 Csus4’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.