Bsus4 — B suspended fourth chord
The third is replaced by the fourth. A fourth above the root is the note a whole step above the major third, so the shape is the major triad with its middle note raised.
- 1 = B
- 4 = E
- 5 = F#
- Symbol
- Bsus4
- Root
- B
- Quality
- Suspended fourth
- Family
- suspended
- Notes
- B E F#
- Degree formula
1 4 5- Semitones from the root
0 5 7- Distinct pitch classes
- 3
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 5 semitones, 2 semitones
- Notation
- Written sus4 or sus. Resolves down to the major triad.
- Key
- B · B major / G# minor key signature
Formula
The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.
| Degree | Note | Semitones | Interval from the root |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | B | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 4 | E | 5 | Perfect fourth |
| 5 | F# | 7 | Perfect fifth |
Inversions
An inversion is the same set of notes with a different one in the bass. The last column gives the distance of each note above the bass note, in semitones.
| Inversion | Bass note | Degree in the bass | Notes above the bass | Semitones above the bass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| root position | B | 1 | B – E – F# | 0 5 7 |
| first inversion | E | 4 | E – F# – B | 0 2 7 |
| second inversion | F# | 5 | F# – B – E | 0 5 10 |
Playable voicings
These shapes were found by searching the fretboard of a standard-tuned guitar (E A D G B E) rather than copied from a chord book. The search allows every string to sound or to be muted, rejects any shape with a muted string between two sounding strings, rejects any shape whose fretted notes span more than four frets (a five-fret window), requires every chord tone to be present, and then sorts what remains with root-position shapes first and the most compact, lowest shapes next. The shapes shown are the first six of that ordering; other orderings are possible at the same frets.
| # | Shape (low string first) | Notes | Degrees | Bass | Span (frets) | Sounding strings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7-7-9-9-7-7 | B E B E F# B | 1 4 1 4 5 1 | B | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 7-9-9-9-7-7 | B F# B E F# B | 1 5 1 4 5 1 | B | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 7-7-4-4-5-7 | B E F# B E B | 1 4 5 1 4 1 | B | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 7-7-4-4-7-7 | B E F# B F# B | 1 4 5 1 5 1 | B | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 7-9-9-9-5-7 | B F# B E E B | 1 5 1 4 4 1 | B | 4 | 6 |
| 6 | 7-7-9-11-7-7 | B E B F# F# B | 1 4 1 5 5 1 | B | 4 | 6 |
Shape numbers run from the lowest string to the highest, so the left-hand number is the sixth string (low E) in standard tuning. Multiple shapes are listed because a chord can be voiced several ways, and because a lower position is not always the better sounding one.
Related chords and scales
- KeyEverything in B
- ScaleB major
Related
- KeyKey of B
- ScaleB major
- ChordB7sus4 — Dominant seventh suspended fourth
- ChordBsus2 — Suspended second
- ChordB11 — Dominant eleventh
- DegreesB — degree map
- Neck mapB — note map
- ScaleB aeolian