How to Play Dsus4 Chord on Guitar

The follow lesson will teach you how to play the Dsus4 Chord on the guitar.  This tutorial will teach how to play several advanced variations of this chord.  Follow this link for an easy beginner version of Dsus4.

The Dsus4 Chord (also known as D suspended 4 or D Suspended 4th) is found within the D Major Scale: D E F# G A B C# D.  We need three notes from this scale in order to form this chord.  Which notes you ask?  Well in order to find the notes, we need to a apply a simple formula.  This formula is 1, 4,5.  I told you it was simple. But what do those numbers mean exactly?  It means that we take the 1st, 4th and 5th steps of the D Major Scale, which are the notes D, G and A.

So the notes of the Dsus4 Chord are: D G A

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

Everything on the above chart should be self explanatory, except for the last three in the third column. They may need a bit of explaining. The O, or open symbol, simply means that you do not press down on any notes on that string. The X means you do not strum that particular string. The Barre symbol means you need to barre that particular fret. When you barre a fret you are pressing down on multiple strings at the same time with one finger.

Chord Playing Tip: Be sure that you are pressing down on the string hard enough. You should play each string one at a time to make sure you have a nice clean sound. If any of the strings buzz or sound muted, then something is not right.