About Fsus2sus4 — drop 3 voicings
Fsus2sus4 is F, G, Bb and C — Fsus4 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.
Fsus2sus4 notes and formula
| F | G | Bb | C |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
Texture more than function — still no third.
Also written Fsus2/4 or F suspended 2nd and 4th. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Fsus2sus4
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.
Fsus2sus4 has 10 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: F in the bass, G in the bass, Bb in the bass and C in the bass. The one to learn first is the G 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 x85566 — no barre and low, at the 5th fret. None of the shapes for Fsus2sus4 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 3 of the 5 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 113313 | 1st fret | F, root position | G | barred |
| x85566 | 5th fret | F, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x-8-8-10-8-8 | 8th fret | F, root position | C | barred |
| 13-13-10-12-x-x | 10th fret | F, root position | G | all fretted |
| 13-13-15-15-13-15 | 13th fret | F, root position | G | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 15 drop 2 voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Fsus2sus4
In which keys. Every note of Fsus2sus4 belongs to C minor (the iv), D minor (the ♭III), Eb major (the ii), F major (the I), F minor (the i), G minor (the ♭VII), Ab major (the vi) and Bb major (the V).
What to play over Fsus2sus4
Every note of Fsus2sus4 is in F major, F mixolydian, F dorian, F natural minor and F harmonic minor.
Chords near Fsus2sus4
Change one note of Fsus2sus4 and you have Fsus2 (drop the fourth), Fsus4 (drop the ninth), Fadd9 (the fourth becomes a major third), Fmadd9 (the fourth becomes a minor third), F7sus4 (the ninth becomes a flat seventh) or F11 (add the flat seventh).
Fsus2sus4 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 Fsus2sus4’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.