Revolutionise Your Rhythm Playing

In this episode, we talk about chord embellishments and variations. This is crucial for going beyond standard chord shapes and sounds.

Lee has noticed a huge change in his guitar playing. When he started, all he wanted was the lead guitar chops. With maturity, though, he’s come to realize that the great players are those who play great chords, not those who can play lead. The key is to use chord variations.

Going Beyond The Chords On The Page

When it says Am on the page, that gives you a starting point. You can swap this chord for Asus2 or Asus4 or other Am chords like Am6, Am7, Am9, and Am13. This took us into a huge exploration of sus chords!

What Are Sus Chords?

Let’s explain this using the C Major Scale, which has the notes CDEFGAB. Major chords are made up of the root note (the 1st note in the Major scale), the 3rd note, and the 5th, all taken from the Major scale.

For example, the 1st, 3rd, and 5th degrees of the C Major Scale are C, E, and G (CDEFGAB), meaning the C Major chord uses the notes C, E, and G.

Sus means “take away the 3rd and replace with”. So sus4 means “take away the 3rd and replace it with the 4th.” Csus4 contains the 1st, 4th, and 5th degrees of the C Major Scale – the notes C, F, and G. Compare it to the C Major chord (CEG). What’s different?

Sus2 means “take away the 3rd and replace it with the 2nd.” The 2nd in the C Major Scale is the note D, so what notes does Csus2 contain?

Are Sus Chords Major Or Minor?

Whether a chord is Major or minor depends on whether it contains a b3rd or a 3rd. Since sus chords don’t have either, they’re neither major nor minor! This means we can use them in place of both. They sound atmospheric.

💡Go Deep With Sus Chords – Head to Module 5.2 of my Practical Music Theory course to look at sus chords in depth.

Sus Chords In D

Play a regular D open chord (XX0232). Now add your little finger to fret 3 of string 1. You’re now playing a Dsus4 (XX0233). Go back to the regular open D, then take away finger 2 to leave the open string. This is a Dsus2 (XX0220). Play around with these chords. They make wicked embellishments!

Now try it with Dm (XX0231). Which fingers do you need to add or remove to find Dsus4 and Dsus2? Do they still sound good next to a Dm?

Sus Chords With A Major

If we use fingers 1, 2, and 3 to play a standard A Major open chord (X02220) (with finger 1 on string 3, fret 2; finger 2 on string 4, fret 2; and finger 3 on string 2, fret 2), it’s easy to play Asus2 and Asus4. Can you figure out how?

Take off finger 3, leaving the open B string (X02200). That’s Asus2. Go back to the A Major chord, then add your pinkie to fret 3 of string 2. That’s an Asus4 chord. Try to play the sus2 and sus4 chords starting on Am this time!

Sus Chords In A-Shape Barre Chords

Now let’s move to D played as an A-shaped barre chord (X5777X). You can play Dsus4 by adding your pinkie to fret 8 of string 2 (X5778X). Dsus2 is X5775X. We play fret 5 on strings 5 and 2 with finger 1, using fingers 3 and 4 for the other two notes. This is a tricky chord.

Sus Chords From Open C Chord

What is the 3rd of the C chord? That’s right, the note E. See if you can find the Csus4 and Csus2 chords from a standard open C chord.

Strictly speaking, Csus2 is X3001X or X3003X. We need to mute string 1 so there is no note E (meaning no 3rd degree) in the chord. In practice, it’s usually okay to leave string 1 open (X30010 or X30030), unless the E note will clash with another instrument or the singer. If we do so, the proper name for the chord is Cadd9.

💡 Basic Sus Chords – Check out the most essential chords in this Beginner's sus chord lesson.

We can also play fret 3 on string 1 instead of the open string. For example, we could play Csus2 as X30013 or X30033.

There are a few options for Csus4. We can swap both e notes in the C Major chord for F notes, leading to X33011. Or we can simply mute string 1, giving X3301X. We could even leave it open to get X33010. Strictly speaking, this is a Cadd11 chord.

Sus Chords From Open G Chord

Before we explore these together, have a go at finding some sus chords in G yourself. First, what are notes 2 and 4 in the G Major Scale? Those are the notes A and C. So try to replace the note B in the G chord with A or C.

The standard grip for the sus2 chord is 3X0233, with finger 1 playing fret 2 of string 3. This is a true sus2 chord because the 3rd of the G Major Scale (the note B) is absent. Remove this finger, and you get 3X0033, which is a G5 chord. Another option is to play 3X0203, using fingers 2, 3, and 4. This is technically a Gadd9 chord, but it sounds wicked.

G Chord Alternatives

Very rarely do I play string 5 when I play the G chord. My favorite grips are 3X0003 using fingers 3 and 4 and 3X0033 using fingers 2, 3, and 4.

The first grip has a few advantages. First, it makes changing to a C chord effortless. It also only uses two fingers, meaning we can use the other two to add embellishments on frets 1 and 2.

💡Crush Your Chord Changes – If you’re struggling with chord changes, make sure you check out One Minute Changes.

With finger 1, we can play the note C (the 4th note of the G Major Scale), found on fret 1 of string 2. And with finger 2, we can play the note A (the 2nd in G Major), on fret 2 of string 3, or note E on fret 2 of string 4, which is the 6th. All these notes are fantastic for embellishing. Can you find others? :)

Intro to the CAGED System

There are only five shapes on the guitar. Every chord, every scale, and everything you learn fits into one of them. Those patterns are C, A, G, E, and D – CAGED. They take their names from the open Major chords. These five patterns link together, in the order of C A G E D.

CAGED With a C Major Chord

To demonstrate, let’s start with an open C chord: X32010. We’re playing a C chord in the C open shape.

What’s the next C chord up the neck? It’s X35553. That’s C played as an A-shape barre chord. Notice that we’ve gone from C to A in CAGED.

What’s the next chord? It’s C played as a G-shape barre chord: 875558. This one is a horrible chord and quite impractical as a full shape. It works great with a capo on fret 5, though! (CAG)

The next C chord up the neck is the E-shape barre chord: 8 10 10 9 8 8. This is extremely useful (CAGE). And finally, the next after that is the D-shape barre chord X X 10 12 13 12. (CAGED)

If we did the same with A Major, we’d find it appears in the order AGEDC (this is CAGED beginning on A). The same pattern appears with all chords and all scales.

Why Learn The CAGED System?

A huge advantage of knowing the CAGED system is that it binds our knowledge of chords and scales. And it works in all keys! It also gives us the confidence to find chords across the neck, which is useful for a whole heap of reasons.

Have fun with all these new chords, and make sure you put them into practice! If you're keen to learn more about CAGED, stick around for the next episode of Rut Busters. Take care. :)

💙Master the CAGED system and use it to make awesome music in my Practical Music Theory course.

The Gear

I'll include links here to the guitars, amps, and effects that Lee and I use in each video.

Justin's Guitar: Pete's Fender Telecaster
Lee's Guitar: Gray Guitars (I want one!!!)

Justin's Amp: Victory
Lee's Amp: Victory

About This Series

This video lives on the Anderton's YouTube Channel – this series alternates between that channel and my main one.

Anderton's Music
Anderton's is my local music store in Guildford (UK) and I got in touch with Lee to throw around some ideas for collaboration. It's a cool store and I buy most of my stuff there :) Big thanks also to Danish Pete for his editing expertise and fun hangs!