E7sus4 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About E7sus4 — drop 2 voicings
E7sus4 is E, A, B and D — E7 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.
E7sus4 notes and formula
| E | A | B | D |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 | ♭7 |
Also written E7sus or E dominant 7 sus 4. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play E7sus4
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
E7sus4 has 15 of them, on the middle four strings, the top four strings and the bottom four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass, A in the bass, B in the bass and D in the bass. The one to learn first is the B shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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.
Play E7sus4 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 9 (F#) or the 13 (C#).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 020200, open position, E, root position, top note E, 4 open strings
- xx2435, 2nd fret, E, root position, top note A, all fretted
- x77755, 5th fret, E, root position, top note A, barred
- x-7-9-7-10-7, 7th fret, E, root position, top note B, barred
- x-x-x-9-10-10, 9th fret, E, root position, top note D, all fretted
- x-x-9-9-10-10, 9th fret, B, 2nd inversion, top note D, all fretted
- 12-14-12-14-12-12, 12th fret, E, root position, top note E, barred
How to use E7sus4
In a phrase:Bm7→E7sus4→Amaj7— the ii–V–I of A.
Voice by voice, E7sus4 → A. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In E7sus4 | Moves | In A |
|---|---|---|
| E, the root | stays where it is | E, the fifth |
| A, the fourth | stays where it is | A, the root |
| B, the fifth | falls a whole tone | A, the root |
| D, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | C#, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of E7sus4 belongs to C major (the iii), D major (the ii), E minor (the i), F# minor (the ♭VII), G major (the vi), A major (the V), A minor (the v) and B minor (the iv).
What to play over E7sus4
Every note of E7sus4 is in E minor pentatonic, E blues, E mixolydian, E dorian and E natural minor.
Chords near E7sus4
Change one note of E7sus4 and you have Esus4 (drop the flat seventh), Esus2sus4 (the flat seventh becomes the second), Em7 (the fourth becomes the minor third), E7 (the fourth becomes the major third), E11 (add the ninth) or E/D (the fourth becomes the major third).
E7sus4 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.