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?