E suspended 4th guitar chord (Esus4)

How to play Esus4

Finger numbers run 1 for the index to 4 for the little finger. String names are given as players say them — the low E is the thickest string (the 6th) and the high E is the thinnest (the 1st).

1. 2nd finger (middle) — 2nd fret, A string
2. 3rd finger (ring) — 2nd fret, D string
3. 4th finger (little) — 2nd fret, G string

• Play open: low E (6th), B (2nd) and high E (1st) — strum them without fretting anything.
• Strum all six strings. Nothing is muted in this shape, so the chord should ring from the low E right through to the high E.

Notes and intervals in Esus4

Esus4 is built from 3 notes: E, A and B.

• E — the root (R)
• A — the suspended 4th (4)
• B — the perfect 5th (5)

Across the six strings the shape sounds E · B · E · A · B · E from low to high, so some notes are doubled in different octaves — that is what gives an open guitar chord its width compared with the same chord on a keyboard.

What Esus4 is used for

Esus4 is E minor with an A added on the G string — or E major with the G♯ pushed up a semitone. Either way the 3rd is gone and the chord is unresolved. Three fingers line up across the 2nd fret, which makes it the easiest suspension to grab while a strumming pattern is already running.

Common mistakes with Esus4

• Using the index finger on the G string. Adding the little finger to an Em shape instead keeps the index free for the 1st-fret note that returns you to E major.
• Deadening the open B string with a flat little finger.
• Treating it as a chord in its own right. It works as a pause on the way to E, not as a place to stop.

Chords that go with Esus4

Same-root variations first, then the chords a fourth and a fifth away — the shapes Esus4 is most often played alongside.

• E major
• E minor
• E dominant 7
• A major
• A minor
• B minor