Bsus4

Bsus4 is B, E and F#, a suspended fourth. The shape this page opens on is written x24452, lowest string first.

Note by note. B is the root, E is the fourth and F# is the fifth.

Also written Bsus or B suspended 4th. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.

There are 6 common shapes for Bsus4 on the guitar, and 49 derived voicings in 2 families.

One note away. Change a single note of Bsus4 and you have B (with one note moved), Bm (with one note moved), Bsus2 (with one note moved), Bsus2sus4 (with one note added), B5 (with one note taken away) or B7sus4 (with one note added).

In which keys. Every note of Bsus4 belongs to C# minor (the ♭VII), D major (the vi), E major (the V), E minor (the v), F# minor (the iv), G major (the iii), Ab minor (the ♭III), A major (the ii), B major (the I) and B minor (the i).

The common shapes, written lowest string first: x24452, 7x4457, xx4457, 799977, x-x-9-11-12-12, x-14-14-11-12-x.

Under the hand. None of the shapes for Bsus4 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 1 of the 6 needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 14th.

Triad. Three notes across one string set. Bsus4 has 024xxx, 222xxx, 0244xx, 2224xx, xx445x, xx997x, xxx977, xx9977.

Open string. An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. Because it costs no finger, it sounds a note the closed shape has none left for -- a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath. Either a familiar grip with open strings added, or a shape so sparse the open strings carry the chord. These belong to their key rather than to a shape, so D, A, G and E have many and Eb a handful. Bsus4 has xx4400, 0x440x.

What kind of chord this is. Bsus4 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, and what they are for.

The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.