JAM TRACKS
Sus and Add Chords WITH RICHARD BARRETT
CONTINUING in our quest to demystify non-standard chord voicings (not your straight Major or Minors) we turn our attention to the 'sus' and 'add' chords. When we see the word‘sus’in a chord name, such as Dsus4, it is an abbreviation of D suspended 4th. So instead of the usual D Major chord tones – D(root), F# (3rd) and A(5th) – the 3rd is replaced by the suspended note, in this case G, the 4th interval of the D major scale. Playing a Dsus4, then a DMajor chord gives the feeling that the first‘suspended’chord‘resolves’to the Major chord – like an‘Amen’! Sus2 chords work in the same way. What about 'add' chords, you may ask? Well, we simply add notes to the existing chord rather than replacing the 3rd. See the examples below.
BY LEAVING the second string open, rather than the normal C# at the 2nd fret, we omit the 3rd and create an Aadd9 with the resultant B. Many a song has been written by artists experimenting with the sus2, sus4 and Major versions of the same chord. Try it for yourself, and join artists like The Beatles and The Police.
HERE’S THE SUS4 version of the same chord. This time we replace the C# with a D– the 4th interval from the A Major scale. In case you were wondering – yes, this means sus chords are neither Major nor Minor. Jimi Hendrix was a great fan of the add9 chord and you can hear it in many of his songs.
AADD9 is often incorrectly called Asus2. This is actually a very different chord, as it contains both the B and the 3rd,
