Is there a name for this common D-chord thing?

Alex C

Inspired
I don't know the right terms to use here, but there's a D chord "enhancement thing" that is used in a number of popular songs and is usually played by an acoustic guitar. That thing where you hold a D chord shape and add and remove the 4th and 2nd (pinky and middle) fingers. One way of writing it might be:

Dsus4 - D - Dsus2 - D

Here are some examples with time-specific video links:

"Patience" by Guns n Roses (at 1:37)



"American Pie" by Don McLean (at 1:33) (It sounds like this one starts with a D7 shape)



"Wizard" by Uriah Heep (at 0:16)



Is there a common name for this? (Also, is there a term for the type of thing it is? "Embellishment"?)

I know I've heard several more songs with this thing in them, but I can't think of them at the moment. Any more examples?
 
I’m pretty sure you called it. Dsus4 - D - Dsus2 - D, unless I’m not understanding. I have listened to the videos. But I’ve played that a lot. You can call it D2, rather than Dsus2.
 
Is there a common name for this? (Also, is there a term for the type of thing it is? "Embellishment"?

To me it's specific to guitar in that it is "shape" based. Where the D shape is maintained and one or more notes are altered.
You could call it "voice leading". Where during the chord changes, one or more notes remain the same.

(I have a very vivid memory from the 70's where I "discovered" you could slide chord shapes up and down the neck. Blew my mind lol)
 
Guitar players think we invented everything. It's a very common thing. It just so happens to be voiced like that on open D for guitar. But the same thing is on piano, or any chord instrument, for every single major chord.
 
I’m immediately reminded of this quote:

“Any guitar player knows that, with that open-position D chord, you just move your
fingers around and you get all these little maladies...I mean melodies! Well, sometimes maladies. [laughs] And that became a thrill, to see how many more times you could write around that open D, like "Here Comes The Sun." —George Harrison
 
I think it’s one of those things we all invent on our own, as it rolls off the fingers so easily. It’s also something very easy to overdo for the same reason.
Our other guitarist subconsciously does it at every possible opportunity. Every. Even where it doesn't belong. Imagine Hotel California, and you hear that embellishment every time the D chord comes up. It's annoying, lol.
 
The nice thing about being able to think and speak "music language" is that once you call that D thingee "D sus4 / D /Dsus2 / D" – and think about what the numbers and name "suspended" mean– then you can find the same thing based on A chord. And then, on F chord. Then, on C chord.
And finally, you can figure out how to barre those relationships up the neck, to make sus4 and sus2 voicings everywhere.
And THEN, you write a rock opera like "Tommy".
 
Our other guitarist subconsciously does it at every possible opportunity. Every. Even where it doesn't belong. Imagine Hotel California, and you hear that embellishment every time the D chord comes up. It's annoying, lol.

I have to stop myself from throwing that and other cliches in all the time!

I’m trying to picture that on Hotel California...
 
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