suspended fourth chord · A root
A7sus4 chord
- A1
- D4
- E5
- G♭7
More actions
The A7 suspended 4th chord is built from the notes A, D, E, G. It turns up 5 times in the 104 songs on this site, including Wish You Were Here and Wonderwall.
By Chiye · Updated
What is the A7sus4 chord?
The A7sus4 chord (A7 suspended 4th) is a suspended fourth chord built from four notes: A, D, E, G — the 1–4–5–♭7 of the A scale, 5 semitones and 7 semitones and 10 semitones above the root. On guitar it is most often played in open position (x-0-2-2-3-3) with 4 fretted strings while 1 string rings open and the low E string stays silent. It is rated intermediate. A dominant seventh with the third held back, so it keeps the pull toward the tonic but loses the bright major colour. Across the 104 song sheets in this site's library, A7sus4 appears 5 times in 2 songs, most often in the keys of G and F#m, and the chord it most often moves to is Em7. Below you will find step-by-step fingering, audio of every shape, and the real progressions this chord lives inside.
How do you play the A7sus4 chord on guitar?
Open position. The barre covers only part of the strings; keep the marked open strings ringing.
- Lay your index finger flat across the D to G strings at fret 2, rolled slightly onto its bony edge.
- Press the B string at fret 3 with your middle finger.
- Press the high E string at fret 3 with your ring finger.
- Start your strum on the A string and do not play the low E string at all.
Leave out the lowest fretted note (D string) and practise the remaining strings. The bass changes, and the upper strings may still need a smaller barre; check that the third and other colour tones stay clear. x-0-x-2-3-3
How do you make A7sus4 sound clean?
The diagram frets D at fret 2 and B at fret 3, with the G and high E strings open. Do not confuse it with an A7 shape: the B string note is D, the suspended fourth.
Play A7sus4 x-0-2-0-3-0, then A7 x-0-2-0-2-0. Move the B string from fret 3 to fret 2 and hear D resolve to C#.
In real songs
What songs use the A7sus4 chord?
- chord changes
- 5
- songs
- 2
- common keys
- G · F#m
Across the 104 chord sheets on this site, A7sus4 appears 5 times in 2 songs — most often in the keys of G and F#m.
Em7A7sus4Em7A7sus4
Em7A7sus4Em7A7sus4
Em7GDsus4A7sus4
Chord flow
What chord comes after A7sus4?
Every number here is a count from the progressions in our song sheets, not a generalisation: 1879 chord changes are behind these figures.
The theory behind A7sus4
A7sus4 is spelled A – D – E – G — the 1 – 4 – 5 – ♭7 of the A scale, which is the root plus 5 semitones, 7 semitones, 10 semitones. A dominant seventh with the third held back, so it keeps the pull toward the tonic but loses the bright major colour.
The fourth stands where the third would be, so A7sus4 keeps the dominant's pull toward the key a fifth below but loses the bright major colour. On guitar that means the shape is the same as the plain dominant with one finger moved; the fourth usually falls a semitone back onto the third, and that fall is the resolution.
What key is the A7sus4 chord in?
A7sus4 is a dominant seventh with the third held back to the fourth, so it does the plain dominant's job: it is the V7 in D, in both D major and D minor, and it lands there as soon as the fourth falls back to the third.
the dominant — the flat seventh is what pulls it home
the same dominant job in the minor key
A7sus4 on other instruments
A – D – E – G — all white keys, so you can find the shape by counting up from C.
Take it to the practice room
