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  I'll Remember April  
 

Different Chord-Melody Treatments of the 1st Phrase of the Tune
Ted Greene Harmonization Study - December 2, 1977
Compilation pages by P. Vachon

Ted's Original Lesson sheets
IllRememberApril_FirstPhrase_1977-12-02_ORIG.pdf

My compilation pages, changes and comparisons
IllRememberApril_FirstPhrase_1977-12-02_NotesGrids.pdf

In this group of 17 examples, Ted takes the first 3 or 4 measures of “I’ll Remember April” and runs it through a variety of different harmonic treatments, most of which contain pedal root tones.  They’re all in different keys, and I’d venture to guess that Ted would encourage a student to move the examples to other keys as well.  I like the fact that Ted gave a brief description for each example—this helps us to see how he was thinking, and provides us with a list of options for doing our own reharmonization / arranging for other pieces.

A lot of the chord grid boxes do not include chord names, since they mostly involve moving lines. As always you’ll want to pay close attention choosing fingerings for each example—ones that will allow for the sustaining of the pedal tones. Most of these you can work out, but I’ll offer a couple of suggestions for some of the not-too-obvious examples:

Example 1:
Measure 1:  use your 3rd finger on the G pedal.  For the chord move on beats 3 and 4 of measure 2, finger it this way:  3,2,2 then 3,2,1,1. 

Example 2:
This is a tough one to get smooth with the pedal sustain.  Try using finger 3 for the G pedal.  For the “square” notes in measure 1 the fingering works out to be 3,2,4.  Another option could be to use finger 4 for the G pedal, and then for the “square” notes the fingering would be 4,1,2.  Both are a bit awkward, but Ted seemed to play things like this with ease—“It all comes if you put in the time, man.”

Example 3:
Finger as:  dots:  1,3,4; keep 3rd finger planted and then for the X’s:  2,4; for the squares:  1,2 (keep that 3rd finger down!).  For the next measure:  dots:  1,3,4; keep 3rd finger down and for X’s: 1,4 (just slide each one), and for the squares:  2,1.  Notice the contrary motion.

I think you get the idea….  If you can get through the first three examples you be fine with the others.  After you’ve worked through these and selected your favorites, try to incorporate them into a chord-melody arrangement.  Ted has several versions (in different keys) posted on this site you might work with and build upon.

I hope these pages. 
Enjoy!
--Paul



 
   
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