Estimated reading time 4 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Do you want to know how to play the Bsus chord on guitar or piano? Bsus has a different construction from your usual triads. Keep reading to learn how to master playing bsus chords on guitar and piano.
This article uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission from purchases made through the links. I’ll only recommend products I use, use in lessons, or ones my students or colleagues have recommended.
How to Master Playing Bsus Chords on Guitar and Piano: What Is It?
What is Bsus?
- Bsus is short for B suspended. Why suspended? Because it has a restless quality that needs to be resolved.
- Basically, the 3rd (D#) gets substituted by either the 2nd (C#) or the 4th (E), and it has B as its root.
There are two types of sus chords.
- Bsus defaults to the Bsus4 chord, meaning that the 3rd (D#) is replaced by the 4th (E). Therefore, this chord can be labeled either Bsus or Bsus4.
- However, there’s also the Bsus2 chord, meaning that the 3rd (D#) is replaced by the 2nd (C#). This chord will always be labeled Bsus2.
How to Master Playing Bsus Chords (Guitar and Piano): How it Works on Guitar
Hand Icon (churien.deviantart.com/art/hand-template-blank-272630198) by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Modified by Geoffrey Keith.
Bsus4 is tricky to play, because it uses two barres.
- Barre this chord by pressing your index finger (finger #1 – see the hand icon above) across the five thinnest strings at the second fret.
- Then, barre the two middle strings using finger #3.
- Lastly, press your finger #4 down onto the second string at the fourth fret.
However, this fingering can be difficult to play on the acoustic guitar.
- It’s difficult for everyone to play, but particularly for women and children, because it’s a hand strength issue.
- You can partially get around this by playing on an electric, which normally has lighter gage strings with a lower string action.
- However, you can also make it easier to play this chord by using the alternate fingering that substitutes fingers 2 and 3 for the third finger barre.
- You can make it even easier by releasing the first finger barre.
- Press finger #1 onto the fifth string, second fret and mute the first string with your pinky (finger #4).
- The first fingering is quicker to play but requires more hand strength.
- The second fingering uses more fingers, which makes it more complex to play. However, it helps with the hand strength issue, because you have more fingers pressing down, which evens out the load.
The next diagram shows you a regular B major chord.
- This is often paired with sus chords, because the sus chord resolves to the major chord.
- Notice that B major also uses a #1 and #3 finger barre.
- If you use the alternate fingering of Bsus4, you’ll also need to use the same fingering for B major.
- However, finger #4 will play one fret lower (i.e., one fret closer to the head of the guitar).
- The last diagram shows you the Bsus2 chord.
How to Master Playing Bsus Chords on Guitar and Piano: How it Works on Piano
Hand Icon (churien.deviantart.com/art/hand-template-blank-272630198) by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Modified by Geoffrey Keith.
Piano Bsus4
Mobile users: for best results reading the examples, rotate your screen 90o to the right.
How you’ll finger the above triads will depend on the context of the music.
- Therefore, the first Bsus4 triad above is in root position so it would most likely be in B position.
- This means you’ll use finger numbers 1, 4, and 5 on the right hand, and 5, 2, and 1 on the left hand.
- The second triad is in first inversion.
- This means that it’ll be in E position with right hand fingers 1, 2, and 5, and left hand fingers 5, 4, and 1.
- The third triad is in second inversion.
- A possible fingering choice would be 1, 2, and 5 on the right hand, and 5, 2, and 1 on the left hand.
- However, the fingering ultimately depends on what other triads and scales you’re playing with it.
Piano Bsus2
The same fingering principle goes for these triads as well.
- For example, the first Bsus2 triad above is in root position so it would most likely be in B position.
- This means you’ll use finger numbers 1, 2, and 5 on the right hand, and 5, 4, and 1 on the left hand.
- The second triad is in first inversion.
- This means that it’ll be in E position with right hand fingers 1, 2, and 5, and C position with left hand fingers 5, 2, and 1.
- The third triad is in second inversion.
- This means that it’ll be in F position with 1, 4, and 5 on the right hand, and 5, 2, and 1 on the left hand.
- You’ll need to experiment with these triads to see which fingering works best for the music you’re playing.
Here are some resources that’ll help you learn these and other chords.
Guitar
Piano/Keyboard
Final Thoughts
Takeaway points:
- Bsus is short for B suspended, because it has a restless quality that needs to be resolved.
- There are two types of Bsus: Bsus4 and Bsus2.
- On guitar, your fingering decisions will be based on your hand strength, while on piano it will be hand position based.
Have fun playing!
Glossary
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