B♭sus2

B♭1C2F5

The third replaced by the second. Nothing in it decides between major and minor.

Written the other way round it is A♯sus2 — the same twelve keys on a piano, a different piece of notation.

on guitar on piano the scale

Every fingering that fits a hand

Fig. 2

3011

open

Fig. 3

3013

open

Fig. 4

301x

open

Fig. 5

3563

moderate · barre

Fig. 6

xa88

easy

What is true of it

B♭sus2 is B♭, C and F — 1, 2 and 5 counted from B♭.

These are also the notes of Fsus4/B♭. Which name is right depends on what is underneath and what came before — the notes alone do not decide.

The easiest of the 5 fingerings below is 3011: 3 fingers, held at the 1st fret.

3 of them use open strings, which is what makes a shape quiet to change to.

1 of the 5 need a barre.

Where its notes are on the neck

Fig. 7 — first 12 frets

The brass dots are B♭, the root. Everything else is a chord tone with its degree printed in it.

With a different note underneath

first inversion

B♭sus2/C

x011

second inversion

B♭sus2/F

x563

An inversion is the same chord with a different note lowest. The name changes to a slash name because the bass is what a listener hears as the foundation.

B♭ in other shapes

B♭sus4suspended fourth B♭7sus4dominant seventh suspended fourth B♭major B♭mminor B♭dimdiminished

Csus2 C♯sus2 D♭sus2 Dsus2 D♯sus2 E♭sus2 Esus2 Fsus2 all 374