F7sus4 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 F7sus4 — drop 2 voicings
F7sus4 is F, Bb, C and Eb — F7 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.
F7sus4 notes and formula
| F | Bb | C | Eb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 | ♭7 |
Also written F7sus or F dominant 7 sus 4. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F7sus4
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.
F7sus4 has 14 of them, on the top four strings, the bottom four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: F in the bass, Bb in the bass, C in the bass and Eb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Eb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the top 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 F7sus4 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 9 (G) or the 13 (D).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 131311, 1st fret, F, root position, top note F, barred
- xx3546, 3rd fret, F, root position, top note Bb, all fretted
- x88866, 6th fret, F, root position, top note Bb, barred
- x-8-10-8-11-8, 8th fret, F, root position, top note C, barred
- x-x-x-10-11-11, 10th fret, F, root position, top note Eb, all fretted
- x-x-10-10-11-11, 10th fret, C, 2nd inversion, top note Eb, all fretted
- 13-15-13-15-13-13, 13th fret, F, root position, top note F, barred
How to use F7sus4
In a phrase:Cm7→F7sus4→Bbmaj7— the ii–V–I of Bb.
Voice by voice, F7sus4 → Bb. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In F7sus4 | Moves | In Bb |
|---|---|---|
| F, the root | stays where it is | F, the fifth |
| Bb, the fourth | stays where it is | Bb, the root |
| C, the fifth | falls a whole tone | Bb, the root |
| Eb, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | D, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of F7sus4 belongs to C minor (the iv), C# major (the iii), Eb major (the ii), F minor (the i), G minor (the ♭VII), Ab major (the vi), Bb major (the V) and Bb minor (the v).
What to play over F7sus4
Every note of F7sus4 is in F minor pentatonic, F blues, F mixolydian, F dorian and F natural minor.
Chords near F7sus4
Change one note of F7sus4 and you have Fsus4 (drop the flat seventh), Fsus2sus4 (the flat seventh becomes the second), Fm7 (the fourth becomes the minor third), F7 (the fourth becomes the major third), F11 (add the ninth) or F/D# (the fourth becomes the major third).
F7sus4 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.