Esus4 guitar chord
Three notes across one string set.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Esus4 — triad voicings
Esus4 is E, A and B — E 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.
Suspended — classically it resolves down onto the third.
Esus4 notes and formula
| E | A | B |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 |
Also written Esus or E suspended 4th. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Esus4
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.
Esus4 has 49 of them, on the high-middle three, the low-middle three, the top three strings, the bottom four strings, the top four strings, the middle four strings, the bottom three strings, strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass, A in the bass and B in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
6 of them sit on the bottom 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.
All 9 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 022200, open position, E, root position, top note E, barred
- 022455, open position, E, root position, top note A, 1 open string
- xx2455, 2nd fret, E, root position, top note A, all fretted
- x7745x, 4th fret, E, root position, top note E, all fretted
- x-7-9-9-10-7, 7th fret, E, root position, top note B, all fretted
- x-x-9-9-10-0, 9th fret, B, 2nd inversion, top note A, 1 open string
- 12-x-9-9-10-12, 9th fret, E, root position, top note E, all fretted
- x-x-9-9-10-12, 9th fret, B, 2nd inversion, top note E, all fretted
- 12-14-14-14-12-12, 12th fret, E, root position, top note E, barred
How to use Esus4
Voice by voice, Esus4 → E. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In Esus4 | Moves | In E |
|---|---|---|
| E, the root | stays where it is | E, the root |
| A, the fourth | falls a semitone | G#, the major third |
| B, the fifth | stays where it is | B, the fifth |
In which keys. Every note of Esus4 belongs to C major (the iii), C# minor (the ♭III), D major (the ii), E major (the I), 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 Esus4
Every note of Esus4 is in E minor pentatonic, E blues, E major, E mixolydian and E dorian.
Chords near Esus4
Change one note of Esus4 and you have E (the fourth becomes the major third), Em (the fourth becomes the minor third), Esus2 (the fourth becomes the second), Esus2sus4 (add the second), E5 (drop the fourth) or E7sus4 (add the flat seventh).
Esus4 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.