Julie Swihart

Suspended Chords

Let’s look at how to play an Esus (“E suspended”) chord on the piano. We’ll also learn the pattern for building other suspended chords.

What Are Suspended Chords?

There are two main types of suspended chords: sus2 and sus4.

To play a sus2 chord, play the first, second and fifth notes of the matching major scale.

To play a sus4 chord, play the first, fourth and fifth notes of the matching major scale.

Suspended chords are similar to major chords. Major chords are built with the first, third and fifth notes of the matching major scale, but suspended chords change the middle note. Instead of using the third note of the matching major scale for the middle note of the chord, a sus2 chord uses the second note of the scale, and a sus4 chord uses the fourth note of the scale.

Chord Types Printable

Learn to play 17 types of piano chords using 12 different root notes with this 34-page PDF! Chords are sorted both by their root note (C, D, E, etc.) and type (major, minor, etc.).

Get the Printable

How to Play an Esus2 Chord on the Piano

To play an Esus2 chord, we’ll play the first, second and fifth notes of the E major scale:

E – F♯ – B

We can use this pattern to build any other suspended second chord, using the first, second and fifth notes of the matching major scale.

How to Play an Esus4 Chord

Now let’s look at how to play an Esus4 chord. To build the chord, we’ll use the first, fourth and fifth notes of the E major scale:

E – A – B

We can use this pattern to build any other sus4 chord, using the first, fourth and fifth notes of the matching major scale.

Chords labeled as “sus”, without the 2 or 4 following, usually indicate a sus4 chord.

Conclusion

Now you know how to build Esus chords, and you can use that knowledge to build other sus2 and sus4 chords, using the same patterns.

Suspended chords are really beautiful, and work well as chord substitutions for major chords. You can resolve them back to their matching major chord if you’d like, but sometimes it’s nice to leave them as-is since they sound so nice.

I hope you enjoy playing these lovely chords!