The Esus2 chord
Think of the Esus2 as open and unresolved, neither happy nor sad. The chord is built from E - F# - B, a textbook suspended second. It does its strongest work in indie rock, dream pop and modern worship, where it tends to leave the harmony open under a sung melody. The Esus2 does its work quietly. Lift the third out of E and you get Esus2. U2's Edge built a career on it. 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 Esus2 in the chord builder →Voicings for Esus2
Common ways to grip the Esus2 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 Esus2 across the neck. Pick the shape closest to where your hand already sits.
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.
Piano voicings
Root position and inversions. The bass note matters: each inversion changes how the chord sits under a melody.
The theory behind Esus2
Progressions that use Esus2
Short progressions that put the Esus2 to work. Each one is shown in a different key so you can pick the one that suits your singer.
This chord appears as a borrowed or passing chord in many major-key progressions.
→ Build this in the chord builderSongs that feature Esus2
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.
- Pride (In the Name of Love) by U2. Esus2 colour in the song's harmony.
- Where the Streets Have No Name by U2. Esus2 inside the famous opening.
- With or Without You by U2. Esus2 colour in the song's chord palette.
Related chords
Chords a step away from the Esus2 in the songwriting circle, the natural neighbours when you want a substitution.
Keys where Esus2 lives
The keys where this chord turns up diatonically. Open any key page for the full set of progressions that lean on it.
Related references
Other ways to put the Esus2 to work across the reference library.
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 Esus2 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 Esus2. For interactive playback, voice-leading hints and substitution suggestions, open the chord builder above.