B♭sus4

B♭1E♭4F5

The third replaced by the fourth, which leans on the third it is standing in for.

Written the other way round it is A♯sus4 — the same twelve keys on a piano, a different piece of notation.

on guitar on piano the scale

Every fingering that fits a hand

Fig. 2

3311

moderate

Fig. 3

331x

easy

Fig. 4

3566

hard

Fig. 5

xab8

easy

What is true of it

B♭sus4 is B♭, E♭ and F — 1, 4 and 5 counted from B♭.

These are also the notes of E♭sus2/B♭ and D♯sus2/B♭. Which name is right depends on what is underneath and what came before — the notes alone do not decide.

The easiest of the 4 fingerings below is 3311: 4 fingers, held at the 1st fret.

None of them uses an open string, so this chord moves up the neck unchanged — the same shape 1 fret higher is the chord a semitone above.

Where its notes are on the neck

Fig. 6 — first 12 frets

The brass dots are B♭, the root. Everything else is a chord tone with its degree printed in it.

With a different note underneath

first inversion

B♭sus4/E♭

x311

second inversion

B♭sus4/F

x566

An inversion is the same chord with a different note lowest. The name changes to a slash name because the bass is what a listener hears as the foundation.

B♭ in other shapes

B♭sus2suspended second B♭7sus4dominant seventh suspended fourth B♭major B♭mminor B♭dimdiminished

Csus4 C♯sus4 D♭sus4 Dsus4 D♯sus4 E♭sus4 Esus4 Fsus4 all 374