Dominant Ninth Suspended Fourth Chord

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Last updated on: 2009-08-19 2:00 PM

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A dominant ninth suspended fourth chord is composed using a root/1^st, perfect 4^th, perfect 5^th, minor 7^th and major 9^th (or R/1-4-5-7-9) intervals played simultaneously. Generally written as C^9sus4 or C^9sus, it is good practice to simply use an uppercase C followed by a superscripted ^9sus4 to represent it in writing (ie: C^9sus4) however it is also common to see it written as C^9sus with the presumption of a suspended fourth and not suspended second.

Dominant Ninth Suspended Fourth Chord Profile

Intervals	root/1^st, perfect 4^th, perfect 5^th, minor 7^th, major 9^th or R/1-4-5-7-9
Stability	Consonant / Unresolved
Grouping Class	Pentad
Common Names (examples in C)	C^9sus4, C^9sus

Dominant Ninth Suspended Fourth Chord Voicings

The chord voicing's below are not shown with any particular root note, they are shapes which can be moved around the guitar neck freely using the root note (circled dot) as your navigator. See example below.

How to use
As an example, let's say you require a D major chord
After playing all the chord voicing's, you decide on voicing #2
Voicing #2 has it's root on the 5^th string so you need to find the D note on this string
You click the notes on the neck reference chart tab and find the D note is on the 5^th fret (5^th string)
You now play D major using voicing #2 on the 5^th fret
Use the Octave chart tab to help you remember which notes are where
Use the Chord chart help tab if your a beginner at reading chord boxes

Dominant ninth suspended fourth chord voicings

Notes on the guitar neck chart (lite version)

Using octaves to learn notes on the guitar neck

First determine which chord you require, let's use a B major chord in this example.
We know the root note is B, (if it were an A major chord the root note would be A and for Cma⁷ it would be C, etc etc)
Using the notes on the guitar neck chart, find the B note on the 6^th string, 7^th fret.
Now using the major chord voicing's chart, look for voicing #4 which has it's root note on the 6^th string and play it.
Now lets find a B major chord on the 5^th string using voicing #2
You already know the B note on the 6^th string 7^th fret, now track back to the B on the 1^st string 7^th fret, then to the B on the 3^rd string 4^th fret, and finally to the B on the 5^th string 2^nd fret and play voicing #2 major chord.
Remember, learning and memorizing notes, chord voicing's and scales in this way will improve your playing skills, theoretical knowledge and desirability as a band member.

Dominant Ninth Suspended Fourth Chord Audio Sample(s)

To download audio sample(s) for later listening, right click on the MP3 link, then from the context menu that appears select Save Target As (Internet Explorer) or Save Link As (Firefox).

Audio Sample Name	Flash	MP3
C Dominant Ninth Suspended Fourth Chord voicing #3		c-dominant-ninth-suspended-fourth-chord-voicing-3.mp3

Related Lessons & Resources

Guitar Lessons
- How to read chord diagrams
- Open chords part 1
Music Theory
- Harmonizing a major scale (triads)

External Resources

Suspended chord at Wikipedia.org