A#sus4 Chord on Ukulele
A#sus4 = A# – D# – F (Root, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th)
Sus2 pulled Bb major's third down; sus4 pushes it up instead, trading D for Eb, a perfect fourth above the root. Getting there on ukulele takes two separate small barres rather than one wider stretch: the index finger covers the E and A strings at the first fret while the ring finger, sitting two frets higher, covers the G and C strings at the third fret — a stacked double-barre arrangement that most of the instrument's simpler open shapes never ask for.
There's real tension packed into a fourth sitting right above the major third, and unlike sus2's shrug of ambiguity, sus4 leans hard toward resolving, almost as if the note itself is impatient to fall. Bbsus4 turns up as a suspended stand-in for the I chord in Bb's own key, generally held for a beat before dropping into the plain major triad, and as a suspended IV chord in the key of F, where that brief sus4-to-major motion gives the subdominant a small lift without slowing the song down. Both barres here sit on fretted, closed strings rather than open ones, which gives the chord a tighter, more contained feel — and makes its eventual release into Bb major land with sharper contrast than a sus4 shape built around ringing open strings would produce. This is one of the few chords in the whole Bb family where two independent barres are genuinely required rather than optional, which makes it a useful benchmark for how comfortable a player's barre technique has become.
Fingerings
Open Position
How to Practice It
Treat the two barres as separate exercises at first: hold just the index finger's barre across the E and A strings at fret one and strum only those two strings, then separately hold the ring finger's barre across the G and C strings at fret three. Once each pair rings cleanly alone, the challenge in combining them is spacing, not stretch — the two fingers need real distance between them along the neck even though the frets themselves sit close together. The move worth drilling is the drop into Bb major: slide the ring finger's barre down one fret, from three to two, while the index finger's lower barre never moves at all. If both barres together feel unstable at first, practice releasing and replanting just the higher one while the lower one stays anchored, since that's the specific coordination the shape is asking for.
Common Progressions
- Isus4 – I, the classic hold-and-release, in the key of Bb (Bbsus4 – Bb)
- IVsus4 – IV, in the key of F (Bbsus4 – Bb, functioning as IV)
- I – IV – Vsus4 – V, in the key of Bb (Bb – Eb – Fsus4 – F)
- vi – Isus4 – I (Gm – Bbsus4 – Bb)
FAQ
- Why does Bbsus4 need two separate barres?
- Its four notes split naturally into two pairs at two different frets — the E and A strings share the first fret while the G and C strings share the third — so each pair is most efficiently covered by its own small barre.
- How does Bbsus4 differ in feel from Bbsus2?
- Sus4's raised fourth sits just a half-step above the major third and pulls strongly toward resolving down into it, giving sus4 a more urgent, classic tension-and-release quality than sus2's more open, ambiguous color.
- What's the actual resolution move from Bbsus4 to Bb major?
- Drop the ring finger's barre down one fret, from the third fret to the second, while the index finger's barre across the E and A strings at the first fret stays completely still.
- Is the double-barre shape common on ukulele?
- It's less common than a single barre, since most open ukulele chords avoid needing two separate flattened fingers at once, which is part of why Bbsus4 is a genuine coordination step up from earlier shapes.
- Can Bbsus4 be played without a barre at all?
- Yes — using four separate fingers instead of two flattened pairs produces the identical notes, which trades the coordination challenge of two barres for a slightly more spread-out but arguably steadier hand position.
- How common is it for a song to actually hold a sus4 chord rather than resolve it quickly?
- Usually only for a single beat or two, since the whole point of a sus4 is the anticipation it builds before resolving — a song that lingers on it much longer starts to feel like the chord itself, not a suspension of something else.
A#sus4 on other instruments: A#sus4 on Guitar, A#sus4 on Piano. Related: how chords are built, chord finder.