Rough order, not a ladder. Each track moves at its own pace: your chords can be here while your lead playing is still a stage behind. Nothing has to be mastered before you move on.
New colours without a barre.
7th chords are the sound of the blues, sus and add9 chords dress up the open chords you know, and Fmaj7 is the friendly way into F before the barre. Power chords are two or three notes and move anywhere on the neck.
Ready to move on when
Fmaj7, B7 and Cadd9 sound clean, and power chords move up and down the neck without buzzing.
Songs to try
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
Green Day
G Cadd9 D · Em D C G
Free Fallin'
Tom Petty
D Dsus4 D A
Hound Dog
Elvis Presley (12-bar blues in E)
E7 ×4 · A7 ×2 E7 ×2 · B7 A7 E7 ×2
12-bar blues in A
the blues form (Johnny B. Goode and many more)
A7 ×4 · D7 ×2 A7 ×2 · E7 D7 A7 E7
Smoke on the Water
Deep Purple
riff in power chords
Five notes that never sound wrong.
The minor pentatonic has five notes and no wrong-sounding ones over a blues or rock tune. Box 1 sits under one hand, so you can start making up lines on day one.
Ready to move on when
You can play box 1 up and down from memory, and improvise for a whole 12-bar without stopping.
House of the Rising Sun (traditional): Am C D F · Am C E. Pick the chords as arpeggios and hum the tune over them.
Why some chords belong together.
Most songs use the I, IV, V and vi chords of one key. Once you know which chords belong together you can guess a song's chords and transpose it. Interval shapes are the grid every scale and chord is built from.
Ready to move on when
You can name the I, IV, V and vi chords of G, C, D and A, and pick out a 5th or an octave by ear.