How To Play Dsus2 Chord On Guitar
In today's lesson, we'll go over 4 distinct ways to play the D suspended second chord, or Dsus2 for short.
We'll discover common voicings and recommended finger positions. Each of the guitar chord diagrams provided also include the notes that make the chord, which will help with learning your guitar fretboard.
Later in this article, we'll also discuss chord theory, how sus chords get their name, and how to use it. So grab your guitar, make sure you're tuned to standard tuning, and let’s begin!
Play Dsus2 In Open Position
The easiest fingering for the Dsus2 chord is going to be in the open position. To play, place your:
- Middle finger on the third string, second fret
- Ring finger on the third string, third fret
- Strum down on the fourth string so that the D string and the open E string ring out
Play Dsus2 In Barre Position
There are two positions for the Dsus2 guitar that we'll discuss here that require you to use a barre chord. The nice thing is this sus2 chord is relatively easy as far as barre chords go.
Barre Chord Voicing 1
This first voicing is the easiest and most common for sus2 bar chords. To play:
- First, place your index finger on the fifth string, fifth fret
- Then, your ring finger on the fourth string, 7th fret
- Your pinky finger on the third string, 7th fret
- At last, bar your index finger across strings 1-4 and strum from the 5th string down
Barre Chord Voicing 2
This next voicing is an octave up from the open position you learned above. To play, place your:
- Index finger on the 4th string, 12th fret
- Ring finger on the 3rd string, 14th fret
- Pinky finger on the 2nd string, 15th fret
- Strum from the D string down while barring strings 1-4
Dsus2 Without Barre
This last chord for the Dsus2 chord is a bit of a stretch but doable. Place your:
- Index finger on the 6th string, 10th fret
- Middle finger on 5th string, 12th fret
- Pinky finger on 4th string, 14th fret
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Dsus2 Guitar Chord Theory
Here, I am going to break down the theory of the Dsus2 chord so you can better understand what's going on under the hood and how to use it.
The D suspended second chord is built from the D major scale: D E F# G A B C#
To understand the chord formula, you need to understand "scale degrees," which is simply numbering the notes starting with the root note.
Often, music teachers reference piano note names due to the simplicity of the layout of a piano, but I think the illustration below will do:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
D E F# G A B C#
If you've read my breakdown of the D major chord, you'd know that a D major chord uses notes D, F# A, which are the 1 3 5 notes of the scale. For a sus2 chord, we use the 1 2 5 notes of the scale.
Side note: I don't want to get too deep into the theory, but sometimes you'll hear the 2 referred to as a major second in reference to the intervals. This is getting a little deeper into music theory and isn't important right now.
The Dsus2 is neither a major nor a minor chord.
In music theory, the 3rd scale degree determines if a chord is major or minor and because the 3rd scale degree is not part of the suspended chords formula, it is not considered a major nor minor chord.
Notice from each guitar chord diagram, the following notes D E A are being used. These are the notes that make this chord, and if you add any other note besides these, it will no longer be a Dsus2 chord.
How To Use A Suspended Second Chord
As already mentioned, a suspended second chord is neither major nor minor and this plays in to how the chord is named as the audio element is almost like it's "SUSPENDED" and doesn't know where to go.
It's used to get a bit more mileage out of the chord before there is movement. This means that you can bounce around on it, moving from Dm to Dsus2 or D major to Dsus2 to keep the listener entertained a little longer before you move to another chord.
Try this:
If you are playing in the key of D minor, go back and forth between Dm and Dsus2 a few times, then play a C major. If you are playing in the key of D major, go back and forth between the D major chord and Dsus2 a few times, then play a G major.
It's super easy and sounds great!
Now you know a few ways to play the Dsus2 chord and understand some Dsus2 chord theory!
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