The 23-Chord Challenge (a Guitar Bet You Can’t Lose)
There are millions of popular songs in the world. And to play them all, you need thousands of guitar chords under your belt.
But.
If you wanna play the majority of these tunes, the number of chords required is low.
Absurdly low.
With just 23 chords, you can play more than 50% of the songs submitted to sites like:
The 23-Chord Challenge (Summarized)
23-Chord Infographic
Bob Dylan, You’re a Genius. But...
A genius composer, Bob Dylan gifted the world with one of the greatest protest anthems ever – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.
It’s simple.
It’s classic.
It’s brilliant.
And "technically" playable with only 3 simple chords (G, C, and D), Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door is accessible to anyone and everyone.
This is the literal definition of Folk music. And it’s why so many of my guitar friends recommended I start with this song.
But here was my problem.
I liked that song. But not enough to play it the gazillions of times needed to get good at those chords.
My guitar friends would tell me...
“Austin. If you’re not willing to invest the work, perhaps guitar isn’t for you. Maybe you should take up a different hobby.”
But that answer was never satisfying.
Why should there be one (and only one) path to mastering G, C, and D? Surely there must be other songs I could use to lock down these 3 easy chords.
So I kept looking and eventually found:
- Louie Louie by the Kingsmen
- La Bamba by Ritchie Valens
- Three Little Birds by Bob Marley
- Wild Things by the Troggs
And these helped a lot.
Instead of doing endless repetitions of the same song, I could spread my practice across many different tunes.
But why stop there? An even longer list would provide:
- Greater variety.
- Less boredom.
- More practice.
So I kept looking.
And after talking to more guitar friends, I found dozens of nursery rhymes, country ballads, and folk tunes that used G, C, and D exclusively.
And that’s when I discovered the Axis of Awesome's viral video – a montage of popular songs that all use the same chords.
If you’ve never seen this video, it’s worth watching.
In this video, the Axis of Awesome plays 4-chord pop tunes. But I realized there might be tons of songs that use my 3 chords – G, C, and D.
Maybe hundreds.
And instead of asking my guitar friends for a list of these tunes, I could ask the entire world?
Crowdsourcing the Perfect Playlist
Think of a guitar song.
Any song.
And you’ll probably find a version of it on one of the sites below:
With songs submitted from musicians around the globe, these databases are massive. And when you add them together, you have a realistic cross-section of popular music.
From there, you can start doing some pretty cool things.
For example, you can sequence the “DNA” of these guitar tunes and map out their chords and relationships. And this gives you a searchable index of songs organized by the chords they use.
Ok, great. But what does that mean exactly?
Here’s a simplified explanation.
Birth of the Challenge
There aren’t many 1-chord songs in the Chord Genome database.
But of the ones that do exist, G appears most often.
Therefore this is the best chord to start with. As a beginner, learning G allows you to play the most music.
Not a lot. Only 3 songs. And they're very simple:
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat
- Frere Jacques (a.k.a. Are You Sleeping, Brother John?)
- One Chord Song (by Keith Urban)
In an index of 350,000 tunes, these 3 songs represent 0.001% of the total database. That isn’t much. But you’re making music.
And that’s worth celebrating.
C is the next best chord after that. Adding it to G gives you 143 songs. And this moves the needle to 0.041% of the database. Pick tunes you know and use them to get better at C.
Adding D unlocks 3,959 tunes. And you’re finally past the 1% mark. More important, you’re now playing real guitar songs – i.e. the kind you actually hear on the radio.
If you continue this step-by-step sequence, it’ll take forever to reach 100% of the database. You’d need to repeat this process 2,133 times to play all 350,000 songs in the catalog.
But it’s the red, bolded portion below that caught my eye.
Why Stop at 23 Chords?
The 50% mark is somewhat arbitrary.
I agree.
There are many places you could stop well before that point.
And if you’re not interested in taking the 23-Chord Challenge, here are some other targets worth exploring:
- With just 1 chord under your belt, you’re making music. You could easily stop after this momentous victory.
- Learn the right 3 chords, and you have a lifetime of music (i.e. nearly 4,000 tunes). You could play a new song every day for almost 11 years – and never once repeat.
- You can play nearly 25% of the database with just 10 chords. That’s roughly 87,000 songs – enough to start taking requests whenever you gig.
23 chords represents the halfway mark. And that's where the challenge officially ends.
This doesn’t mean you should stop learning chords. But after the 50% mark, you start running into diminishing returns.
Here are 3 charts to help you visualize what that means.
Chart 1: First 23 Chords
In the chart below, you can see the first 23 chords laid out in the optimal learning sequence. Together, these chords allow you to play 50% of the songs in the database.
The red bar (C#) indicates the halfway mark.
Chart 3: All 2,133 Chords
This final chart shows the entire database drawn to scale.
After the red bar (which is almost invisible), progress drops off suddenly. In fact, the chart looks empty – even though it extends all the way to the right edge.
Is This Challenge Scientific?
Absolutely not. But it IS data-driven.
These are real tunes submitted by real people from around the globe. And with hundreds of thousands of guitar songs across rock, pop, jazz, reggae, country, soul, and folk – the Chord Genome Project is a fairly accurate cross-section of popular music.
And according to the data, 23 chords are all you need to play the majority of these songs.
But...
There are some caveats (i.e. conditions) that we need to address first.
Caveat 1: Popular Music
The Chord Genome Project is weighted towards popular songs – i.e. rock, pop, jazz, reggae, country, soul, and folk.
You won’t find much classical music. The same goes for ambient, electronic, techno, and hip-hop. These simply aren’t the types of genres people upload to the major guitar sites.
Caveat 2: Western Music
The database is heavily slanted towards Western popular music. So if you’re into K-Pop or Chinese rock, you’re out of luck.
Filipino music is surprisingly well represented, however.
Caveat 3: English Songs
You’ll find a fair number of Spanish, French, and Portuguese tunes. But most of the music is in English because most of the source databases cater to English speakers.
With time, this will change.
Caveat 4: User-Submitted Songs
Anyone can upload music to sites like Ultimate Guitar and Songsterr. Some tunes are expertly transcribed. Others – not so much. So there’s a lot of “variety” when it comes to accuracy and quality.
Caveat 5: Original Key
There is nothing inherently special about these 23 chords. If you moved every chord up half a step (i.e. G#, C#, D#), for example:
- The relationships between all 23 chords would remain the same.
- The amount of playable music would also stay the same.
- Everything would just be in a slightly higher key.
The only reason these 23 chords are singled out is because composers and performers prefer simplicity.
It’s easier to write songs in C major, G major, and F major because they have the fewest sharps and flats.
What this means is you’ll often have to use a capo to play in the original key.
A capo is an attachment that fits on the neck of the guitar. And it allows you to play songs in a higher pitch – while still using basic chords.
Caveat 6: Unique Chords
There are actually tens of thousands of chords in the entire Chord Genome database. But there are only 2,133 unique ones.
What does that mean?
Well, there are many different ways to spell out the same chord. For example, A# can be written as:
- A#
- A#major
- A#maj
- A#M
- Bb
- Bbmajor
- Bbmaj
- BbM
23 Is Just a Number
With the right 23 guitar chords, you can play more than 50% of the current database.
Right now, this means being able to play more than 175,000 guitar tunes.
If you add or remove songs, however, the halfway mark will change.
But not as much as you’d think.
When the database was much smaller (i.e. 100,000 tunes), you needed 19 chords to reach 50%. And if you doubled the size of the database (to 700,000 songs), the number required might approach 30 chords.
19 chords. 23 chords. 30 chords.
It doesn’t really matter.
The number needed to reach 50% playability is absurdly low.
And “23” is a symbolic placeholder that represents how surprisingly easy and achievable the journey is.
If you can master those 23 chords, you’ll be able to play roughly 50% of all the popular songs you hear on the radio.
And that’s just kind of cool.
23-Chord Challenge FAQs
Below are some of the questions I get most often. As more come in, I'll expand this list.
1. What If I’m Not a Beginner?
The 23-Chord Challenge is designed for someone starting from zero.
But maybe you already know some chords.
For example, many beginners start with A, D, and E.
That’s great. Get in where you fit in.
You can join the challenge at any point. Plug in the chords you already know and work your way forward.
The journey will be even faster for you.
2. Is the 23-Chord Challenge Only for Guitar?
No. The 23-Chord Challenge works with any chordal instrument – i.e. ukulele, lute, piano, and xylophone.
3. What about Picking, Shredding, Soloing, etc.?
There are many different aspects of guitar learning. And as the name suggests, the 23-Chord Challenge focuses on just one – i.e. learning chords.
If you can master these 23 chords, you can “play” the majority of popular songs on the radio.
So when do you learn all those other skills like picking, strumming, sweeping, arpeggios, crescendos, scales, tempo, etc.?
When do you tackle music theory and basic musicianship?
I’ve actually written an entire article about this. Check out the Rule of One to learn more.
4. Do I Have to Use the Chord Genome Project?
No. You don’t have to use the Chord Genome Project to take the 23-Chord Challenge:
- You already know the 23 chords needed to reach 50%.
- You also know the optimal order in which to learn those chords.
- The songs you need to practice are already published online.
- With enough time and effort, it’s possible to find them all.
The Chord Genome Project merely simplifies the process. This searchable database makes it easier to find guitar tunes you can start playing right now.
5. Does Chord Genome Work on Mobile Devices?
In theory, yes. The platform is technically “mobile-ready.” But I strongly recommend using a laptop or desktop.
It’ll make life much easier.
Hopefully, the Chord Genome Project will become a truly stable mobile platform in the future.
6. How Accurate Are the Song Results?
Eh. They’re accurate “enough.”
Remember these tunes are submitted by amateurs and experts alike.
Moreover, songs get edited and removed all the time. It’s a bit annoying to be honest.
Fortunately, you can use sites like Archive.org to see what a tune looked like before it was changed.
This free tool takes periodic “snapshots” of the Internet. And this allows you to go back in time to find edited or deleted songs.
Anyway, managing a database of this size isn’t easy. And the results aren’t 100% perfect – which is why the Chord Genome Project is still in beta. But even with these limitations, the platform makes finding playable music much easier.
For more on this, be sure to read:
Taking the 23-Chord Challenge?
You've made it to the end of this monster article.
Hopefully I’ve convinced you.
And maybe you’re ready to take on this un-losable guitar bet.
But before you do, it’s worth restating the 23-Chord Challenge one more time:
- Learning the right 23 chords allows you to play more than 50% of the popular songs you hear on the radio.
- Learning them one-by-one allows you to focus on a single, achievable goal. And there are tons of songs to help you succeed.
- Learning them in the right order maximizes the number of songs you can play at each stage. Choose the ones you like and start practicing.
That’s the challenge.
As long as you can learn just one more chord, there’s no way you can lose.
And even if you stop short of 23 chords, you still take home a ton of new music.
So you win no matter what.
If you’d like to take the 23-Chord Challenge, create an account today - and start making music.
And if you know any frustrated guitarists or beginners out there, share the 23-Chord Challenge with them.
Good luck.
And happy strumming.
What Songs Can I Play
with the Chords I Know?
To find out, use the Search tool below.
Type chords here or import from My Library
Important: The ability to add your own chords allows you to create a list of songs tailored to your skill level. Enter familiar chords, and every song will be an easy one (by definition). You can also use genre and decade filters to target music you actually want to play.