C#7sus4 Guitar Chord

In today’s post we will be learning exactly how to play a guitar chord known as C#7sus4.  Other names for this chord are C Sharp 7 Sus 4, C# dominant 7th suspended 4th, Db7sus4.   Let’s dive into a little music theory concerning this chord shall we?  This chord has it’s origins in the C# Scale.  The C# Scale consists of the following note:  C#, D#, E#, F#, G#, A#, and B#.   As you can see there are 7 notes within this scale, but we only need 4 notes from this scale to build are chord and those notes are:  C#, F#, G#, B.  You are probably wondering how we came up with those 4 notes right?   Well it’s quite simple.  We need to apply a simple little formula that looks like this:  1-4-5-b7.  This just means that we need to take the 1st, 4th, 5th and flattened 7th positions of the C# Scale to make our C#7sus4.   The “flattened 7th” or “b7” may need a bit of explaining.  For this, we just take the 7th position of the C# scale and go back or “flatten” that note one half step to arrive at our “B”.

 So the notes again are: C#, F#, G#, B

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

So now that you have learned a bit of theory behind the chord, let us take a look at the chord charts.  See the key above to help you read the diagrams below.  There are 4 different versions of this chord below.  These are definitely intermediate to advanced chords so if you are a beginner and having difficulties with this chord, do not get frustrated.  It will take some time before you build up the strength and skill to play these without error.