Dominant 13th sus4

Notes and formula

The formula is 1 – 4 – 5 – ♭7 – 9 – 13, or 0 – 5 – 7 – 10 – 14 – 21 in semitones. Everything a thirteenth chord has, with the fourth standing in for the third.

The upper five notes — G, B♭, D, F, A — spell G minor eleventh. So the whole chord is that chord over a C bass, and that is how it is voiced in practice by everyone who plays it.

How to play it

On piano put C alone in the left hand and a G minor eleventh in the right. Trying to build the chord upward from the root produces a muddy stack and takes twice as long.

On guitar six notes are out of reach. The usable fragment is x–3–3–3–3–5, sounding C–F–B♭–D–A: root, fourth, seventh, ninth and thirteenth, with the fifth left to the bass.

What it does

Nothing, deliberately, and for as long as needed. Without a third there is no tritone, so the chord has no built-in destination and can carry an entire section.

When it does move, it moves the same way its smaller relatives do: the fourth falls to the third and the chord becomes a plain dominant thirteenth, which then resolves down a fifth.

Where you hear it

Gospel above all, where the vamp on a suspended dominant is a genre convention rather than a device. Neo-soul and modern R&B inherited it directly.

In big-band writing it appears as the penultimate chord of an arrangement — held, then released into the final tonic, with the suspension carrying the weight of the pause.

Against the smaller suspended dominants

C7sus4 has four notes, C9sus4 five, C13sus4 six. All three do the same job and differ only in how much of the upper structure is stated.

The choice is arranging, not harmony: the more instruments are already playing, the fewer of these notes any one of them should hold.

Scales that contain it

Mixolydian contains every note and is the default. Since the third is absent from the chord, the soloist decides whether the passage sounds major or minor.

Most players think in terms of the G minor eleventh above the bass and use Dorian on G, which describes the same notes from the shape actually under their hands.

Frequently asked questions