Csus4 — C 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 = C
- 4 = F
- 5 = G
- Symbol
- Csus4
- Root
- C
- Quality
- Suspended fourth
- Family
- suspended
- Notes
- C F G
- 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
- 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 |
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 | 0 5 7 |
| first inversion | F | 4 | F – G – C | 0 2 7 |
| second inversion | G | 5 | G – C – F | 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 | 8-8-10-10-8-8 | C F C F G C | 1 4 1 4 5 1 | C | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 8-10-10-10-8-8 | C G C F G C | 1 5 1 4 5 1 | C | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 8-8-5-5-6-8 | C F G C F C | 1 4 5 1 4 1 | C | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 8-8-5-5-8-8 | C F G C G C | 1 4 5 1 5 1 | C | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 8-10-10-10-6-8 | C G C F F C | 1 5 1 4 4 1 | C | 4 | 6 |
| 6 | 8-8-10-12-8-8 | C F C G G C | 1 4 1 5 5 1 | C | 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 C
- ScaleC major
Related
- KeyKey of C
- ScaleC major
- ChordC7sus4 — Dominant seventh suspended fourth
- ChordCsus2 — Suspended second
- ChordC11 — Dominant eleventh
- DegreesC — degree map
- Neck mapC — note map
- ScaleC aeolian