Suspended 2nd & 4th

Notes and formula

The formula is 1 – 2 – 4 – 5, or 0 – 2 – 5 – 7 in semitones. The second and the fourth are both present, the third is absent, and the fifth holds the chord together.

Folded into one octave the notes are C, D, F and G — four consecutive notes of a pentatonic scale. Nothing in the chord is closer than a whole tone, which is why four notes with no third still sound clear.

How it sounds

Wide and unhurried. A sus2 chord is open and a sus4 leans; combining them cancels the lean and keeps the openness, so the chord neither resolves nor asks to.

It has no quality and no direction, which makes it useful exactly where a progression should stop implying anything — under a held vocal note, at the start of a piece, or as a pad that stays for eight bars.

How to play it

On guitar the shape is x–3–3–0–3–x, sounding C–F–G–D. The open third string carries the fifth, which is why the chord rings.

On piano it works in close position, and the four notes lie under one hand: C–D–F–G. That is unusual for a four-note chord and follows from the absence of any interval smaller than a whole tone.

Where you hear it

In folk and fingerstyle guitar, especially in alternative tunings where the shape falls out of the open strings. In ambient and post-rock, as a sustained field.

In pop production it appears as the chord under a first verse, where committing to major or minor would tell the listener too much too early.

Against the single suspensions

Csus2 is C–D–G and Csus4 is C–F–G. This chord is both at once, and adding the second note removes the tension the fourth had on its own.

That is worth knowing when substituting: replacing a sus4 with a sus24 does not make the chord fuller, it makes it calmer.

Frequently asked questions