Esus4 Chord on Ukulele
Esus4 = E – A – B (Root, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th)
Of everything built on an E root, Esus4 is genuinely the easy one: fret the fourth fret across just the G and C strings with a single flat finger, and let the E and A strings ring untouched. That's the entire shape — no reach, no third string to wrangle, which makes it something of an outlier in a chord family that otherwise asks a lot of the fretting hand.
Trading E major's third for the fourth scale degree gives the chord that unmistakable leaning-forward quality every sus4 carries — the displaced note sits only a half-step from where the ear expects the third to be, so it reads as motion in search of a landing spot. That landing spot is almost always plain E itself, with Esus4 serving as the quick anticipatory gesture right before it, a move strummers borrow constantly from folk and rock guitar vocabulary. There's also a genuine brightness to this shape that the plain triad lacks entirely: two full open strings ring alongside the barred pair, giving Esus4 a resonance that E major, fretted on every string, simply can't match.
Fingerings
Open Position
How to Practice It
Because the barre only spans two strings here rather than three, this is arguably the most forgiving way to start building comfort with E's fourth-fret barre position before tackling the full plain triad. Let the open E and A strings ring out clearly on either side of the fretted pair rather than muting them out of habit. Moving from here into plain E major means keeping the barre exactly where it is and adding the middle finger's stretch to the A string — worth noting that, unusually, the suspended chord is the simpler starting point and the plain triad is the added complexity, the reverse of how this resolution usually feels on other roots.
Common Progressions
- Esus4 releasing into E is the classic anticipation-then-landing gesture
- I(sus4) – I – IV – V (Esus4 – E – A – B)
- IV – V – I(sus4) – I (A – B – Esus4 – E)
- Alternating Esus4 and E on successive downbeats builds a simple rhythmic pulse.
FAQ
- Is Esus4 easier than plain E major?
- Yes — it only needs a two-string barre with the E and A strings left open, compared to plain E major's three-string barre plus an independent finger reaching to a different fret.
- How does Esus4 resolve into E major?
- By adding the middle finger's reach to the A string's second fret while the existing barre stays in place — a genuine addition to the shape rather than a simple release, since Esus4 is actually the simpler of the two chords here.
- Why does Esus4 sound brighter than plain E major?
- Two of its four strings, E and A, ring completely open, giving it real unfretted resonance that plain E major's fully-fretted shape doesn't have.
- Is Esus4 a good introduction to E major's barre technique?
- It's a reasonable stepping stone — the barre itself covers fewer strings and needs no additional stretch, letting a player build confidence with the fourth-fret barre before adding plain E major's extra reach.
- Which note does Esus4 add, and where does it sit?
- It replaces E major's third, G#, with A, the fourth scale degree, which on this voicing comes from the open A string itself rather than any fretted note.
- Is Esus4 used the same way as other sus4 chords across the neck?
- Functionally, yes — it works as a brief pre-resolution suspension right before landing on plain E, the same rhythmic-harmonic role sus4 chords play in every other key on the instrument.
- Can Esus4 be strummed on its own without resolving to E?
- It can, though doing so works against the chord's forward-leaning nature — since sus4 voicings are built around anticipation, holding one unresolved for an extended passage tends to read as unfinished rather than as a settled color choice.
- Does Esus4 share its barre with any other common E-rooted chord?
- Yes — it's the same two-string barre used in Esus2, just with the E and A strings left open here instead of fretted at the second fret, which makes switching between the two suspended colors a simple matter of adding or removing that lower barre.
- Is Esus4 worth practicing as a bridge toward plain E major's barre?
- Yes — since it uses the identical fourth-fret barre position across the same two strings, building confidence here transfers directly once the third string and the extra stretch are added to reach the full plain triad.
Esus4 on other instruments: Esus4 on Guitar, Esus4 on Piano. Related: how chords are built, chord finder.