About F#sus4 — triad voicings
F#sus4 is F#, B and C# — F# 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.
F#sus4 notes and formula
| F# | B | C# |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 |
Suspended — classically it resolves down onto the third.
Also written F#sus or F# suspended 4th. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F#sus4
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.
F#sus4 has 46 of them, on the high-middle three, the top three strings, the top four strings, the bottom four strings, the middle four strings, the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from the 2nd fret up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: F# in the bass, B in the bass and C# in the bass. The one to learn first is the F# shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
6 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.
Start with xx4677 — no barre and low, at the 4th fret. None of the shapes for F#sus4 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 1 of the 6 needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 244422 | 2nd fret | F#, root position | F# | barred |
| xx4677 | 4th fret | F#, root position | B | all fretted |
| x9967x | 6th fret | F#, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x-9-11-11-12-9 | 9th fret | F#, root position | C# | all fretted |
| 14-x-11-11-12-14 | 11th fret | F#, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x-x-11-11-12-14 | 11th fret | C#, 2nd inversion | F# | all fretted |
How to use F#sus4
Voice by voice, F#sus4 → F#. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In F#sus4 | Moves | In F# |
|---|---|---|
| F#, the root | stays where it is | F#, the root |
| B, the fourth | falls a semitone | A#, the major third |
| C#, the fifth | stays where it is | C#, the fifth |
In which keys. Every note of F#sus4 belongs to C# minor (the iv), D major (the iii), Eb minor (the ♭III), E major (the ii), F# major (the I), F# minor (the i), Ab minor (the ♭VII), A major (the vi), B major (the V) and B minor (the v).
What to play over F#sus4
Every note of F#sus4 is in F# minor pentatonic, F# blues, F# major, F# mixolydian and F# dorian.
Chords near F#sus4
Change one note of F#sus4 and you have F# (the fourth becomes a major third), F#m (the fourth becomes a minor third), F#sus2 (the fourth becomes a ninth), F#sus2sus4 (add the ninth), F#5 (drop the fourth) or F#7sus4 (add the flat seventh).
F#sus4 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 F#sus4’s sound and use this page follows Edward Aldwell & Carl Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading (Schirmer / Cengage, 4th ed., 2011). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.