Dsus2sus4 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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About Dsus2sus4 — drop 3 voicings
Dsus2sus4 is D, E, G and A — Dsus4 with the second added underneath the fourth.
It sounds ringing and deliberately ambiguous. Read another way it is a stack of fourths, which is why it works as a pad rather than as a chord that resolves.
Dsus2sus4 notes and formula
| D | E | G | A |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
Texture more than function — still no third.
Also written Dsus2/4 or D suspended 2nd and 4th. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Dsus2sus4
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
Dsus2sus4 has 10 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: D in the bass, E in the bass, G in the bass and A in the bass. The one to learn first is the G shape at the 2nd fret.
5 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with x52233 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Dsus2sus4 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 2 of the 4 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x52233 | 2nd fret | D, root position | G | all fretted |
| x55755 | 5th fret | D, root position | A | barred |
| 10-10-7-9-x-x | 7th fret | D, root position | E | all fretted |
| 10-10-12-12-10-12 | 10th fret | D, root position | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 15 drop 2 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Dsus2sus4
In which keys. Every note of Dsus2sus4 belongs to C major (the ii), D major (the I), D minor (the i), E minor (the ♭VII), F major (the vi), G major (the V), A minor (the iv) and B minor (the ♭III).
What to play over Dsus2sus4
Every note of Dsus2sus4 is in D major, D mixolydian, D dorian, D natural minor and D harmonic minor.
Chords near Dsus2sus4
Change one note of Dsus2sus4 and you have Dsus2 (drop the fourth), Dsus4 (drop the ninth), Dadd9 (the fourth becomes a major third), Dmadd9 (the fourth becomes a minor third), D7sus4 (the ninth becomes a flat seventh) or D11 (add the flat seventh).
Dsus2sus4 is a suspended chord — root and fifth, with a second or fourth where the third would be — or nothing at all. Suspended and power chords on every root.
On Dsus2sus4’s sound and use this page follows Robert Rawlins & Nor Eddine Bahha, Jazzology (Hal Leonard, 2005). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.