Gsus4 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 Gsus4 — triad voicings
Gsus4 is G, C and D — G 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.
Gsus4 notes and formula
| G | C | D |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 |
Suspended — classically it resolves down onto the third.
Also written Gsus or G suspended 4th. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gsus4
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.
Gsus4 has 49 of them, on the high-middle three, the middle four strings, the top four strings, the bottom three strings, the low-middle three, the top three strings, the bottom four strings, strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: G in the bass, C in the bass and D in the bass. The one to learn first is the D shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
6 of them sit on the middle 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 xx5788 — no barre and low, at the 5th fret. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 330013 | open position | G, root position | G | barred |
| 355533 | 3rd fret | G, root position | G | barred |
| xx5788 | 5th fret | G, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-10-10-7-8-x | 7th fret | G, root position | G | all fretted |
| x-10-12-12-13-10 | 10th fret | G, root position | D | all fretted |
| 15-x-12-12-13-15 | 12th fret | G, root position | G | all fretted |
| x-x-12-12-13-15 | 12th fret | D, 2nd inversion | G | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Gsus4
Voice by voice, Gsus4 → G. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In Gsus4 | Moves | In G |
|---|---|---|
| G, the root | stays where it is | G, the root |
| C, the fourth | falls a semitone | B, the major third |
| D, the fifth | stays where it is | D, the fifth |
In which keys. Every note of Gsus4 belongs to C major (the V), C minor (the v), D minor (the iv), Eb major (the iii), E minor (the ♭III), F major (the ii), G major (the I), G minor (the i), A minor (the ♭VII) and Bb major (the vi).
What to play over Gsus4
Every note of Gsus4 is in G minor pentatonic, G blues, G major, G mixolydian and G dorian.
Chords near Gsus4
Change one note of Gsus4 and you have G (the fourth becomes a major third), Gm (the fourth becomes a minor third), Gsus2 (the fourth becomes a ninth), Gsus2sus4 (add the ninth), G5 (drop the fourth) or G7sus4 (add the flat seventh).
Gsus4 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 Gsus4’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.