Guitar: D 13sus4 in the Changes

Where D 13sus4 sits once the key is named, and what this seat is responsible for while it sounds.

D 13sus4 chord diagram, starting at fret 1. Strings low to high: E open, A 3rd fret, D open, G open, B open, E open.

D 13sus4 is D – E – G – A – B – C. Naming the notes is where a chord chart stops. A tune asks the next question instead, and that is the one this page answers.

D 13sus4 has no third of its own, so it names no degree until something around it does — which is why it turns up as a suspension over a chord that already has a job rather than as a chord with one.

The guitar seat carries the comp — the changes stated in three and four notes behind whoever is playing the melody, which in practice means dropping the root and playing the notes nobody else is covering — the third and the seventh first, everything else only if it fits under the hand.

Every shape is drawn for EADGBE across 6 strings, the open ones first and the movable ones up the neck after them, and each one plays back so you can hear the voicing before you commit it to a chorus.