The sus4 chord helps us to introduce a suspended sound into our music, which is often resolved back to the major chord. For example, we can play a Csus4 chord and then resolve this into a C major chord and it will give us a nice tension to resolution type of sound. Because of this, the sus4 chord then is another must have for your piano chords repertoire.
CSUS4 CHORD
Csus4 piano chord - Basic theory
To construct a Csus4 chord, we play the 1-4-5 notes from the C major scale. Alternatively, we can start with a basic C major chord (i.e. 1-3-5 or C-E-G) and then swap the 3rd note (E) for the 4th note of the major scale (F) so that we end up playing a 1-4-5 (C-F-G) as our Csus4 piano chord.
C MAJOR SCALE
C MAJOR CHORD
CSUS4 CHORD
Pro Tip - Try playing the sus4 chord inversions to give you more flexibility & sound variety
More advanced sus4 chords
As we progress on our piano chords journey, it is very natural that we will continue learning more & more types of chords. For example, we may begin to learn about dominant chords and as part of this, we may find ourselves learning about dominant 11th chords, which are commonly referred to as dominant sus chords.
For those who are looking to explore these more advanced sus4 chord options, we invite you to check out our dominant chords page, where you can learn all about dominant 11th chords. And for those who would like to see these dominant sus chords in action, we invite you to check out our 75 Soul Chord Progressions which shows you how to use these chords.