What order to learn guitar chords, by songs unlocked
Most chord charts order shapes by theory. A better question for a beginner is: which chord, learned next, lets me play the most new real songs? We answered that greedily against the whole catalog: start from zero, and at every step add the single chord that unlocks the most songs.
The order
| Step | Learn | Songs it unlocks | For example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | G in 41 songs | 0, it sets up later steps | |
| 2 | C in 31 songs | +1 | Birsiney Hau Ki |
| 3 | D in 22 songs | 0, it sets up later steps | |
| 4 | Am in 19 songs | +1 | Knockin' On Heaven's Door |
| 5 | F in 18 songs | +3 | Thamana Haat, Sarangi |
| 6 | Em in 18 songs | +2 | Stand By Me, Chaar Dewar |
| 7 | Dm in 7 songs | +4 | Baacha Bhayo, Counting Stars |
| 8 | Cadd9 in 12 songs | +1 | Ram Sailee (Ode to My Father) |
| 9 | Em7 in 10 songs | +6 | Sasto Mutu, Risaune Bhaye |
| 10 | D/F# in 5 songs | +2 | Perfect, Nachahe Ko Hoina |
Read the unlock column carefully: some steps add zero songs on their own. That is not wasted work, it is how chords behave. Songs need sets of chords, so sometimes one step plants a chord that the next step turns into a harvest.
The honest caveat
This ordering optimizes for this catalog of 63 songs, weighted toward Nepali music. A country or metal catalog would produce a different order. That is the point: learn in the order that serves the music you actually want to play, not a universal chart.
The app runs this same logic live against the chords you personally know, which beats any static list.
Let the app do the sequencing
PickMyPath is free and runs in the browser. Mark your chords, get your path.
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