Fsus4 — F 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 = F
- 4 = Bb
- 5 = C
- Symbol
- Fsus4
- Root
- F
- Quality
- Suspended fourth
- Family
- suspended
- Notes
- F Bb C
- 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
- F · F major / D 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 | F | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 4 | Bb | 5 | Perfect fourth |
| 5 | C | 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 | F | 1 | F – Bb – C | 0 5 7 |
| first inversion | Bb | 4 | Bb – C – F | 0 2 7 |
| second inversion | C | 5 | C – F – Bb | 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 | 1-1-3-3-1-1 | F Bb F Bb C F | 1 4 1 4 5 1 | F | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 1-3-3-3-1-1 | F C F Bb C F | 1 5 1 4 5 1 | F | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 13-13-15-15-13-13 | F Bb F Bb C F | 1 4 1 4 5 1 | F | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | 13-15-15-15-13-13 | F C F Bb C F | 1 5 1 4 5 1 | F | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | 13-13-10-10-11-13 | F Bb C F Bb F | 1 4 5 1 4 1 | F | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 13-13-10-10-13-13 | F Bb C F C F | 1 4 5 1 5 1 | F | 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 F
- ScaleF major
Related
- KeyKey of F
- ScaleF major
- ChordF7sus4 — Dominant seventh suspended fourth
- ChordFsus2 — Suspended second
- ChordAbsus4 — Suspended fourth
- DegreesF — degree map
- Neck mapF — note map
- ScaleF aeolian