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The Asus4 chord

Think of the Asus4 as held breath, looking for resolution. The chord is built from A - D - E, a textbook suspended fourth. It does its strongest work in classic rock, gospel and praise music, where it tends to delay a resolution by one beat. The Asus4 stays useful for years. Add one finger to A and you have Asus4. Used by Tom Petty and Guns N' Roses alike. Voicings on both instruments, theory in plain language, progressions in multiple keys and a handful of real song references are all laid out below.

Hear the Asus4 in the chord builder →

Scale degrees Note names

Voicings for Asus4

Common ways to grip the Asus4 on guitar and piano. Guitar diagrams read low E to high E left-to-right; an × means muted, an open circle above the nut means an open string. Filled dots are fretted notes.

Guitar , full chord shapes

CAGED-derived voicings for Asus4 across the neck. Pick the shape closest to where your hand already sits.

Guitar: Asus4 shape at fr.2

Notes: A - D - E (chord tones)

Guitar: Esus4 shape at fr.5

Notes: A - D - E (chord tones)

Guitar: Dsus4 shape at fr.7

Notes: A - D - E (chord tones)

Guitar: top-4 voicing

Notes: A - D - E (chord tones)

Guitar , triad shapes

Three-note triad shapes on each string set, shown moving up the neck. Light textures for arpeggios, pop layering and chord-melody work.

Triad: top strings (G-B-e) · open

Notes: top-string triad, open

Triad: top strings (G-B-e) · fr.5

Notes: top-string triad, fr.5

Triad: top strings (G-B-e) · fr.9

Notes: top-string triad, fr.9

Triad: middle strings (D-G-B) · fr.2

Notes: middle-string triad, fr.2

Triad: middle strings (D-G-B) · fr.5

Notes: middle-string triad, fr.5

Triad: middle strings (D-G-B) · fr.9

Notes: middle-string triad, fr.9

Triad: bass strings (A-D-G) · fr.2

Notes: bass-side triad, fr.2

Triad: bass strings (A-D-G) · fr.5

Notes: bass-side triad, fr.5

Triad: bass strings (A-D-G) · fr.7

Notes: bass-side triad, fr.7

Piano voicings

Root position and inversions. The bass note matters: each inversion changes how the chord sits under a melody.

Piano: root position

Notes: A - D - E. Root A at the bottom. The classic stacked-thirds spelling of a suspended fourth.

Piano: first inversion

Notes: D - E - A. D at the bottom. Common in chord-melody, walking bass lines and gentler voicings.

Piano: second inversion

Notes: E - A - D. E at the bottom. A floating, suspended feel often used in hymns and ballads.

The theory behind Asus4

Asus4 is a suspended fourth built on A. Its three or four notes (A - D - E) sit a specific distance apart: root, perfect fourth, perfect fifth. That makes it a passing chord in the key of a closely related major key, and the same chord works as the passing chord in a closely related major key. The simplest rule of thumb: the Asus4 wants to resolve down a step to its parent major.

Progressions that use Asus4

Short progressions that put the Asus4 to work. Each one is shown in a different key so you can pick the one that suits your singer.

I→IV→V key of C major

Asus4 (as passing colour)

This chord appears as a borrowed or passing chord in many major-key progressions.

→ Build this in the chord builder

Songs that feature Asus4

Real records where this chord does structural work. No lyrics quoted, just the title and artist so you can pull up a copy and hear it in context.

Cathedral by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Asus4 colour throughout.
Patience by Guns N' Roses. Asus4 within the verse.
Tom Sawyer by Rush. Asus4 in the iconic intro.

Related chords

Chords a step away from the Asus4 in the songwriting circle, the natural neighbours when you want a substitution.

TriadA DomA7 Maj7Amaj7 m7Am7 NeighbourE NeighbourEm NeighbourE7 NeighbourD

Keys where Asus4 lives

The keys where this chord turns up diatonically. Open any key page for the full set of progressions that lean on it.

C major A minor

Related references

Other ways to put the Asus4 to work across the reference library.

Arpeggiooutline it with arpeggios

More songwriting tools

Got the chord but still wrestling with the lyric? Find the right rhyme in RhymeForge, or break a writer's block with the unexpected word-pair generator in CollisionLab. Need to map a full progression? The chord builder on the home page is where the Asus4 fits into context. All free, no signup.

About the chord builder

The Undercover Zest chord progression builder is a free interactive tool that maps every diatonic and borrowed chord in every key. Click a Roman numeral to hear it, drag chords into a progression, then audition voicings, inversions and tensions until the song clicks.

This page is a static reference for the Asus4. For interactive playback, voice-leading hints and substitution suggestions, open the chord builder above.