Stop 3 of 5
Colour chords: sus, add9 and slash
Suspensions, added notes and bass lines.
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Stop 3 of 5
Suspensions, added notes and bass lines.
A garden isn't only green. So far your chords have mostly been major and minor triads: solid, clear, perfect to start with. In this stop you'll add colour: chords that leave a question hanging, notes that shimmer above the chord, and bass lines that walk on their own. Many of these sounds are played by moving a single finger from shapes you already know.
Listen to these three chords. The first is a plain D; in the second and third a single note changes, the highest one. Notice the feeling: the first one is "at home"; the other two sound open, as if they were waiting for something.
Now hear them in motion: the suspended chord and its return home, bar by bar.
That question-and-answer effect is everyday currency in pop, rock and folk. And your fretting hand only has to lift or add one finger.
In a (sus for short), the third disappears and another note takes its place:
With no third, the chord is neither major nor minor. That's why it sounds neutral, open, "suspended". These are the most useful shapes, each one finger away from its base chord:
The name comes from classical counterpoint. A suspension was a note from one chord that was held over (suspended) while the next chord had already arrived, creating a dissonance that then stepped down to resolve. In Dsus4, the note G is the chord's fourth and "wants" to fall a half step to F♯, the third. The modern sus chord no longer needs that preparation: it's used as a colour in its own right and sometimes doesn't even resolve. A handy curiosity: Dsus2 (D, E, A) and Asus4 (A, D, E) contain exactly the same notes; the bass decides which one you hear.
The most classic use of sus is tension and release within a single chord: sus4 → major, or sus2 → major. Tablature makes it clear: only the top voice moves.
On string 1, the note moves around F♯: G → F♯, E → F♯. A little melody hidden inside the chord.
With slurs you turn that melody into a very guitaristic flourish: strum the sus2, to the major, add the fourth and come back with a . All without letting go of the D shape.
Sus chords replace the third. Other chords keep it and add another note. The two most rewarding on guitar are the add9 and the sixth chord.
An is a triad with the ninth added: the second note of the scale, but an octave higher. Cadd9 = C, E, G + D. It sounds bright and modern.
A adds the major sixth to the triad: C6 = C, E, G, A. It's the colour of swing endings, boleros and fifties pop.
Three chords contain the note D over C, and they're not interchangeable:
| Chord | Notes | Third? | Seventh? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Csus2 | C D G | no | no |
| Cadd9 | C E G D | yes | no |
| C9 | C E G B♭ D | yes | yes (minor) |
We call the added note a "ninth" rather than a "second" because it sits above the chord: 2 + 7 = 9, a . A plain 9 implies a : you'll meet it in the funk stop. And watch the sixth: C6 and Am7 share the same four notes. The bass and the context decide which is which.
Sometimes you'll see symbols like C/B. It isn't a fraction: it's a . Left of the slash, the chord; right of it, the note that must sound lowest. C/B means "C major chord with B in the bass".
What's it for? To let the bass walk by step, note by note, instead of jumping. Look at this staircase: the chords barely change on top, but the bass steps down C, B, A, G, F.
The staircase works upwards too. This line climbs E, F, G, A: it starts with a C whose bass is its third, C/E, and lands on Am. That rise builds anticipation, perfect for setting up a chorus.
Rising and falling bass lines are two sides of the same tool. A falling line tends to sound calm, nostalgic or reflective, like a slow walk downhill; a rising line sounds hopeful and builds energy, like climbing towards a viewpoint. Many songwriters use a falling line in the verse and a rising one to lead into the chorus, so the bass alone tells the listener that something is about to change. When you write your own progressions, try deciding first where the bass should go, and only then choose the chords on top: it's a very different way of thinking about harmony, and a very guitaristic one, because the thumb or the lowest string of the strum does all the work.
Another very useful climb links G to C via G/B: bass G, B, C.
When the bass note belongs to the chord, the slash chord is simply an : C/E is C in first inversion (third in the bass) and C/G is second inversion. When the bass note doesn't belong to the chord, as in C/B or Am/G, the bass adds a new note and the whole sounds like a different chord (C/B has the notes of a Cmaj7). Either way the practical idea is the same: the bass draws its own melody.
Everything in this stop shines even brighter with the technique of the two previous stops. When you arpeggiate, each chord tone is heard separately, so the colour note (the sus fourth, the add9 ninth, the sixth) comes through clearly instead of getting lost in the strum.
Try this example with Travis picking: the thumb keeps the alternating bass of A (strings 5 and 4) while the fingers play the moving voice on string 2: B (sus2), C♯ (major), D (sus4) and back to C♯. Your fretting hand changes just one finger per bar.
There are no fixed rules, but there are habits that almost always work:
Try it like this: take a progression you already play, swap just one chord for its colour version and listen. If you like the change, keep it; if it distracts, go back. One colour per progression is often enough.
Goal: Move between D, Dsus4 and Dsus2 (and A, Asus4, Asus2) with the slur flourish, without cutting the sound, at 72 BPM.
The thumb plays the staircase. Fingers i-m-a stay on strings 3-2-1 and hardly notice the change.
Goal: Play the whole staircase with the p-i-m-i-a-i-m-i pattern, with the correct bass in every bar, at 70 BPM.
A progression in G with two new colours: Cadd9 instead of C, and the D suspension that resolves at the end.
Goal: Strum G, Cadd9, Em and Dsus4-D with clean changes, four rounds in a row at 85 BPM.
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