How to play the D Suspended 2nd chord on guitar
Dsus2 removes the third from D, leaving something open and unresolved that sits beautifully under a vocal. Lifting one finger from a D chord and putting it back is the fastest way to hear what a suspension actually does.
D Suspended 2nd swaps the third for the second, giving D, E, A. Losing the third is what makes a sus chord sound unresolved and open — it wants to fall back to the plain D chord.
Finger it one string at a time
- low E string: don't play it.
- A string: don't play it.
- D string: play it open.
- G string: fret 2 with your index finger.
- B string: fret 3 with your ring finger.
- high E string: play it open.
A standard D chord with the high E string left open.
What makes this shape awkward
- 2 strings stay silent, so your strumming hand has to start on the right string. Aim the pick rather than sweeping all six.
Where you'll use it
Dsus2 appears in 1 of the play-along progression in RiffRoute. These are the actual sequences it sits in:
- Sunset Highway (Indie Pop, 108 BPM) —
D → Dsus2 → G → A
Chords it's usually played with
In the progressions that use Dsus2, these turn up alongside it most often — learning them together is more useful than learning Dsus2 alone.
Hear it and check yourself
Reading a diagram only gets you so far — the part that decides whether Dsus2 sounds right is whether every string rings cleanly. RiffRoute plays the chord back, listens while you strum it, and tells you which string is buzzing.