A Sus4 Chord
The a sus4 chord (Asus4) is A, D, E. Play those 3 notes together and you have it.
No key contains it on its own; it decorates A and Am wherever they are at home.
The keyboards below are live. Press the notes and the page grades what you played, so you can check the shape without guessing, root position first, then both inversions, which is where chord playing stops sounding like exercises and starts sounding like music.
How to play Asus4 on piano
Play the A Sus4 Chord (Root Position)
Tap the highlighted keys — any order.
Right hand: fingers 1, 3 and 5 on A, D, E, thumb on the A.
Left hand: the same notes, fingers 5, 3 and 1, little finger on the A.
Press all the notes at once rather than rolling them, and listen for whether they arrive together. A chord that is nearly simultaneous is the single most common thing that makes playing sound robotic, and it is fixable in a week.
Try it on the keyboard above. Any octave counts.
Asus4, first inversion
Play the A Sus4 Chord (First Inversion)
Tap the highlighted keys — any order.
D, E, A: Asus4 with the third, D, at the bottom. A chord chart writes it Asus4/D. The outside fingers span a perfect 5th, D up to A, so the right hand takes it with fingers 1, 2 and 5.
Use it when the chord before or after shares notes with it: the hand moves one or two keys instead of jumping, and the bass line steps rather than leaps. Play Asus4/D on the keyboard above, then Asus4 in root position, and listen to which way each one leans.
Asus4, second inversion
Play the A Sus4 Chord (Second Inversion)
Tap the highlighted keys — any order.
E, A, D: Asus4 with the fifth, E, at the bottom. A chord chart writes it Asus4/E. The outside fingers span a minor 7th, E up to D, so the right hand takes it with fingers 1, 3 and 5.
Use it when the chord before or after shares notes with it: the hand moves one or two keys instead of jumping, and the bass line steps rather than leaps. Play Asus4/E on the keyboard above, then Asus4 in root position, and listen to which way each one leans.
How the Asus4 chord is built
Count in semitones from the root, A:
| Note | Semitones above the root | Interval |
|---|---|---|
| A | 0 | root |
| D | 5 | perfect 4th |
| E | 7 | perfect 5th |
That pattern is the chord. Move the whole shape up two semitones and you have the same chord on a different root, which is why learning one quality well is worth more than memorizing twelve chords separately.
A semitone is the distance to the very next key, whether black or white. Count them on the keyboard above if the numbers do not mean much yet; they will after a few chords.
Where Asus4 turns up
Asus4 is not in any key by itself. Take the third out of A or Am and put D where it was: D is a white key, a step above the C♯ of A, and the chord hangs there until D falls to C♯ (for A) or to C (for Am). That step of 1 semitone is the whole event.
So it turns up wherever A does (D Major, A Major, E Major, B Minor) and wherever Am does (C Major, G Major, F Major, A Minor), in front of the plain chord for a beat or a bar, and in songs that never resolve it at all because the open sound is the point. Play Asus4 on the keyboard above, hold it, then move D to C♯. Now you have heard a suspension.
Practicing Asus4
Five minutes, in this order:
- Right hand, root position. A, D, E, played together, four times.
- Both inversions, in order, going up and then back down. Say which one you are on.
- Left hand alone, the same three steps. It is always the weaker hand and always the one people skip.
- Hands together, left hand playing just the root while the right hand plays the chord.
- Find it in a piece. A chord you have only met in isolation does not stay learned.
Do not chase speed here. A chord you can place accurately without looking is worth more than four you can nearly place quickly.