Chords with Add

Can anyone tell me why some chords have the word Add like Cmajor Add2 and others do not, like Cmaj6. Why doesn't that have Cmaj Add 6?
Confused of London

Add a number means take the standard 1-3-5 chord and add the said number. I've only play add9 chords, so you'd take the standard 1-3-5 and add a 9th.

Note that add2 and add9 are the same thing, but I've never seen add2. I haven't played enough guitar, so I'll leave it at that. (If you look at the Cmajor scale, both the 2nd and 9th are a D)

The 9 chord (ie, C9) is not just 1-3-5 and a 9, but also a flatted 7.

Wikipedia has some answers, and I don't feel qualified to answer the question further. Just know that the different names correspond to which intervals of the chord you're playing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninth_chord

Originally Posted by: GstringsnapperCan anyone tell me why some chords have the word Add like Cmajor Add2 and others do not, like Cmaj6. Why doesn't that have Cmaj Add 6?
Confused of London

In chord formulas the term add is normally used to distinguish between notes that can be either suspended or added.

major chord - 1-3-5
suspended 2 - 1-2-5
suspended 4 - 1-4-5
added 2 - 1-2-3-5
added 9 - 1-3-5-9
added 4 - 1-3-4-5
added 11 - 1-3-5-11

So, you typically see a 2nd (or an octave higher as a 9th) or 4th (or an octave higher as an 11th) as either suspended or added. This is because the 3rd of the chord can be either present or not (hence, "suspended", or temporarily replaced by the 2nd or 4th).

The 6th is not affected by the possibility of suspension. Therefore, it is usually "just a 6".

Make sense?

Thanks Christopher, I was unclear about this too.

great explanation. all the books i've read and it never made sense until now.