Suspended 4th chord · C root
Csus4 chord
- C1
- F4
- G5
The C suspended 4th chord is built from the notes C, F, G. It turns up 10 times in the 80 songs on this site, including Ho Hey.
By Chiye · Updated
What is the Csus4 chord?
The Csus4 chord (C suspended 4th) is a suspended 4th chord built from three notes: C, F, G — the 1–4–5 of the C scale, 5 semitones and 7 semitones above the root. On guitar it is most often played in open position (x-3-3-0-1-1) with 4 fingers while 1 string rings open and the low E string stays silent. It is rated beginner — most players learn it in their first weeks. An airy, unresolved sound that hangs before resolving to the major chord. It is one of the most-used chords in this site's library: across the 80 song sheets charted here, Csus4 appears 10 times in 1 song, most often in the key of C, and the chord it most often moves to is C. Below you will find step-by-step fingering, 3 positions up the neck, audio of every shape, and the real progressions this chord lives inside.
How do you play the Csus4 chord on guitar?
Open position — the easiest version of Csus4 on the guitar.
- Press the A string at fret 3 with your ring finger.
- Press the D string at fret 3 with your pinky finger.
- Press the B string at fret 1 with your index finger.
- Press the high E string at fret 1 with your index finger.
- Start your strum on the A string and do not play the low E string at all.
The x mark is part of the shape, not an accident: the chord only sounds right when low E stays silent. Instead of aiming your pick around that string, let the string next to it rest on it and damp it. x-3-3-0-1-1
How do you make Csus4 sound clean?
Players rebuild the whole shape between C and Csus4. In C the ring finger sits on the A string at fret 3; Csus4 simply moves it down to the D string at fret 3, and the index and middle fingers never move.
Loop C ↔ Csus4 with a steady eighth-note strum — this is the Ho Hey vamp, and the whole song lives in that one-finger move.
In real songs
What songs use the Csus4 chord?
- chord changes
- 10
- songs
- 1
- common keys
- C
Across the 80 chord sheets on this site, Csus4 appears 10 times in 1 song — most often in the key of C.
Chord flow
What chord comes after Csus4?
The counts come from our own song library — 1560 chord changes in total — which makes them a snapshot of real songs instead of a rule of thumb.
What other ways can you play Csus4 up the neck?
2 more positions below. Learn one of these well and the rest become optional. The value of a second position is practical: it keeps your fretting hand near where the song is already heading.
Position 2 · Fret 3 barre
Because nothing rings open, you can move this whole shape to any fret and it keeps the same quality — only the letter name changes.
A single bar covers the rest of the strings here. If the inside strings stay dead, move the bar a millimetre closer to the fret wire before you try pressing harder.
Position 3 · Fret 8 barre
Every note here is fretted, which means the shape transposes anywhere on the neck without changing your fingers.
The barre is the only hard part of this shape. Keep the bar finger straight and use the weight of your arm rather than the grip of your thumb.
The theory behind Csus4
Csus4 is spelled C – F – G — the 1 – 4 – 5 of the C scale, which is the root plus 5 semitones, 7 semitones. An airy, unresolved sound that hangs before resolving to the major chord.
The fourth replaces the third, so Csus4 has no major or minor quality at all — it is a chord mid-sentence. Move that note down a semitone and it resolves; leave it hanging and the music sounds unresolved on purpose.
Csus4 on other instruments
C – F – G — all white keys, so you can find the shape by counting up from C.
Take it to the practice room
