C9sus4 — C dominant ninth suspended fourth chord
A dominant seventh chord with the third replaced by the fourth and the ninth added. The same notes as the dominant eleventh, which is why the two names are used interchangeably.
- 1 = C
- 4 = F
- 5 = G
- b7 = Bb
- 9 = D
- Symbol
- C9sus4
- Root
- C
- Quality
- Dominant ninth suspended fourth
- Family
- suspended
- Notes
- C F G Bb D
- Degree formula
1 4 5 b7 9- Semitones from the root
0 2 5 7 10- Distinct pitch classes
- 5
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 5 semitones, 2 semitones, 3 semitones, 4 semitones
- Notation
- Written 9sus4. The common voicing of the dominant eleventh in funk and soul, and the chord behind many single-chord vamps.
- Key
- C · C major / A 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 | C | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 4 | F | 5 | Perfect fourth |
| 5 | G | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| b7 | Bb | 10 | Minor seventh |
| 9 | D | 2 | Major second |
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 | C | 1 | C – F – G – Bb – D | 0 5 7 10 2 |
| first inversion | F | 4 | F – G – Bb – D – C | 0 2 5 9 7 |
| second inversion | G | 5 | G – Bb – D – C – F | 0 3 7 5 10 |
| third inversion | Bb | b7 | Bb – D – C – F – G | 0 4 2 7 9 |
| fourth inversion | D | 9 | D – C – F – G – Bb | 0 10 3 5 8 |
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 | 8-8-8-7-8-8 | C F A# D G C | 1 4 b7 9 5 1 | C | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 8-8-8-7-8-6 | C F A# D G A# | 1 4 b7 9 5 b7 | C | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 8-8-8-10-8-10 | C F A# F G D | 1 4 b7 4 5 9 | C | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | 8-10-8-10-8-10 | C G A# F G D | 1 5 b7 4 5 9 | C | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | 8-5-5-5-6-6 | C D G C F A# | 1 9 5 1 4 b7 | C | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 8-5-5-7-6-6 | C D G D F A# | 1 9 5 9 4 b7 | C | 3 | 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 C
- ScaleC mixolydian
- ChordC9
- ChordC
- ChordC7
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