Maybe this post is dead. That's OK. If not, there were lots of good suggestions here. The best one is just play.
That's the advice I needed. I've built a couple of kit guitars in the past few years. I don't seem to get too much beyond cowboy chords.
I guess even a dead post has good advice.
I wonder if there were as many guys on You Tube giving all these free lessons back in 2018 when this topic was running strong.
OK OK I get it JUST PLAY
What kind of music do you like? Give me a list of ten songs you want to learn, and maybe I can help you figure out the best way to break things down to really nail one of them.
I can usually piece out most melodies by ear. Why not just give me 10 tunes? I'll find them on You Tube, listen to them and see if I can learn them. I figure it will expand my cultural surroundings. Chords can be had for most popular songs and sometimes tabs for free.
I may pick it out in the wrong key, but that won't bother me if I get it to sound halfway OK.
I can't say I have a musical type preference. It seems like there are good tunes in all genres.
Suggestions to make the task easier are appreciated. Maybe, Marty Schwartz will have done some of them.
Just don't expect immediate results.
Well, I'm not sure if you're working on an electric or acoustic, or exactly where you are as far as dexterity/development so I'll try to give some suggestions that I figure most intermediate guitarists could learn with a couple solid months of practice. Ten random suggestions off the top of my head that will help get you out of cowboy chords (or at least learn to embellish them prettily):
Acoustic:
John Mayer -
No Such Thing: Jazzier chord voicings, but still simple enough to be playable by someone new to them.
Led Zeppelin -
Over the Hills and Far Away: Some of Page's awesome acoustic playing in this intro with a bit of a weird time feel that takes some practice to get under your fingers. Cowboy and power chords but with cool stuff linking 'em together.
James Taylor -
Fire and Rain: Get your capo and metronome out, this one uses a bunch of cowboy chords in a beautiful way and helps develop your fingerpicking in a fun workout.
John Mayer -
Neon: What, two JM tunes? Yes! This is a really fun piece to play. I think JM does it in a drop tuning, but it can be rearranged to standard. The rhythmic tapping on the bass string with your thumb is a super cool thing to learn.
Electric:
Mighty Mighty Bosstones -
The Impression That I Get: Learn to play off the beat with metronomic precision and get used to using compact chord voicings on the higher three strings
Pearl Jam -
Yellow Ledbetter: Great, fun song to play. It's sort of an introduction to the beautiful Hendrix style of playing chords along with a melody simultaneously. Similar vein: RHCP's Under the Bridge
Mother Mother -
Hayloft: The harmonic minor riff is a real blast to play and a very good way to learn fast alternate picking.
Ozzy Osbourne -
Crazy Train: Iconic riff, and a nice demonstration by Rhoads of how to make a simple chord progression sound cool with creative use of the fretboard. The solo seems difficult at first, but isn't insurmountable if you're stubborn enough.
Dick Dale -
Misirlou: This is a song that anyone interested in tremolo picking needs to learn. Make sure you've got a thicker pick, ideally one with a pointier tip - jazz IIIs work great for the tune
Muse -
Reapers: Awesome tune all the way through, with a great groove. This is a good way to learn to tap. I think Bellamy plays it in drop D, but it can easily be re-arranged for standard tuning.
Learning stuff by ear is a great skill to develop, but I'd caution you to look up some notation if you find that you're always ending up on cowboy chords. There are a lot of ways to play, say, an E major chord on the guitar . . . you may just be getting stuck on the first one that you run into, which sounds close enough but maybe not exactly the way that the artist is playing the tune.
(You probably know this already, but it's super important to break things down into small chunks and slow them way down while learning.)