About Ebsus2sus4 — drop 2 voicings
Ebsus2sus4 is Eb, F, Ab and Bb — Ebsus4 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.
Ebsus2sus4 notes and formula
| Eb | F | Ab | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
Texture more than function — still no third.
Also written Ebsus2/4 or Eb suspended 2nd and 4th. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ebsus2sus4
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.
Ebsus2sus4 has 13 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: Eb in the bass, F in the bass, Ab in the bass and Bb in the bass. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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.
Start with x63344 — no barre and low, at the 3rd fret. None of the shapes for Ebsus2sus4 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 3rd fret. 2 of the 4 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 3rd fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x63344 | 3rd fret | Eb, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| x66866 | 6th fret | Eb, root position | Bb | barred |
| 11-11-8-10-x-x | 8th fret | Eb, root position | F | all fretted |
| 11-11-13-13-11-13 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 8 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Ebsus2sus4
In which keys. Every note of Ebsus2sus4 belongs to C minor (the ♭III), C# major (the ii), Eb major (the I), Eb minor (the i), F minor (the ♭VII), F# major (the vi), Ab major (the V) and Bb minor (the iv).
What to play over Ebsus2sus4
Every note of Ebsus2sus4 is in Eb major, Eb mixolydian, Eb dorian, Eb natural minor and Eb harmonic minor.
Chords near Ebsus2sus4
Change one note of Ebsus2sus4 and you have Ebsus2 (drop the fourth), Ebsus4 (drop the ninth), Ebadd9 (the fourth becomes a major third), Ebmadd9 (the fourth becomes a minor third), Eb7sus4 (the ninth becomes a flat seventh) or Eb11 (add the flat seventh).
Ebsus2sus4 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 Ebsus2sus4’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.