About C#sus2sus4 — drop 3 voicings
C#sus2sus4 is C#, D#, F# and G# — C#sus4 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.
C#sus2sus4 notes and formula
| C# | D# | F# | G# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
Texture more than function — still no third.
Also written C#sus2/4 or C# suspended 2nd and 4th. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#sus2sus4
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.
C#sus2sus4 has 9 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: C# in the bass, D# in the bass, F# in the bass and G# in the bass. The one to learn first is the F# 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 x41122 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for C#sus2sus4 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 2 of the 4 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 11th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x41122 | 1st fret | C#, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x44644 | 4th fret | C#, root position | G# | barred |
| 9968xx | 6th fret | C#, root position | D# | all fretted |
| 9-9-11-11-9-11 | 9th fret | C#, root position | D# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 13 drop 2 voicings, each on its own page.
How to use C#sus2sus4
In which keys. Every note of C#sus2sus4 belongs to C# major (the I), C# minor (the i), Eb minor (the ♭VII), E major (the vi), F# major (the V), Ab minor (the iv), Bb minor (the ♭III) and B major (the ii).
What to play over C#sus2sus4
Every note of C#sus2sus4 is in C# major, C# mixolydian, C# dorian, C# natural minor and C# harmonic minor.
Chords near C#sus2sus4
Change one note of C#sus2sus4 and you have C#sus2 (drop the fourth), C#sus4 (drop the ninth), C#add9 (the fourth becomes a major third), C#madd9 (the fourth becomes a minor third) or C#7sus4 (the ninth becomes a flat seventh).
C#sus2sus4 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 C#sus2sus4’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.