Summer 2026 • TedGreene.com Newsletter

ADVANCE TO NEW ITEMS >>

Warm Summer Greetings!

We’d like to share with you a few of the messages from some of the artists who played on the “Ted Greene Remembered” album: Tommy Emmanuel, Laurence Juber, Lee Ritenour, and Dan Sawyer.

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Like every guitar player I went out and bought Chord Chemistry. I was turned on to his playing in the 70s. He was one of the few players who could play harmonics like Chet Atkins and Lenny Breau. I stole so many ideas from him that I used in my own music. He honored me by coming to see me play in Los Angeles at Boulevard Music where the owner said that it’s really rare for him to come out and see anyone perform. Thanks, Ted, for all your wonderful teaching and ideas that the rest of us sat around and stole.
~Tommy Emmanuel

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I never had the experience of studying with Ted, but Chord Chemistry was an epiphany in my musical development. His fearless harmonic concepts proved invaluable to my explorations in altered tunings.

“A Foggy Day” is one of my favorite Gershwin songs and quite personal, too, as I was born in London during the worst fog in the city’s history. I came upon the suggestion by Ted to play it in the keys of F, D, and Bb. In DADGAD tuning, those keys present some cool “chord chemistry” that neatly integrates with my “Folk-Baroque” fingerstyle approach.
~ Laurence Juber

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I was always struck by Ted’s commitment to his students and to teaching. He was a rare human being that always gave his knowledge, wisdom and love of music and the guitar to his students. His book, Chord Chemistry originally published in 1971, continues to be the “reference standard” for guitarists wanting to expand their harmonic knowledge of the guitar. I’ve never been able to get through the entire book because I always find some amazing new chord position and fingering within the first couple of pages that keeps me busy for a week. Ted Greene was truly a one of a kind and a genius at his craft!
~ Lee Ritenour

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Ted was on the floor sitting cross-legged holding a black Les Paul guitar. He asked some friendly but probing questions that took me aback with their directness. After talking for a few minutes, it was obvious that this man’s mind was unique and brilliant. His whole way of thinking seemed different from anyone I had ever met.

Then, he started to play and my mouth fell open. Here was a guitarist who could play everything from Bach and Gershwin to Wes Montgomery and Johnny Smith. More impressively, he understood the music theory behind all of them. He claimed his current favorites were Max Steiner and Albert King; two musicians who wouldn’t normally be mentioned in the same breath! My friend urged him to play the Mike Bloomfield solo from “East West.” Ted laughed and said he hadn’t played it in a while, but soon enough he was tearing up the fingerboard with a very good approximation of the famous solo.

So Ted was able to appreciate and play the popular music of the 20th century, but was also able to see the electric guitar as an instrument capable of performing in an orchestral style. This included all the classical music from the European tradition and American film scores! No one had ever played the guitar like this. Not George Van fps and not Andres Segovia. It was a new way of conceiving what the 6-string electric guitar could do. What an impressive accomplishment. What beautiful music we heard that day.

As Ted and I became friends over the years, he showed me many beautiful chord progressions and techniques. I owe him so much for the musical inspiration and the friendship. “It Had to Be You” is dedicated to Ted who heard me playing it one day and complimented me. I tried to use some of the harmonics that Ted had mastered so well.
~ Dan Sawyer

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If you don’t own a copy of the “Ted Greene Remembered” album, you can download it from the Audio section of our website: https://www.tedgreene.com/audio/audio.asp
Again, we want to thank Tom Bocci for producing this wonderful tribute recording to Ted, and for allowing us to make it freely available as mp3 files. Free…just like Ted would have wanted!

As usual we want to thank our team members who generously contributed to this newsletter:

• François LeDuc for two more brilliant transcriptions of Ted.
• Mark Levy for some of the “Blues Ideas” pages.
• Mike De Luca for music proofreading.
• Jeffrey D Brown for technical and marketing support.
• Leon White for his stewardship of this website.

And once again I’d like to encourage anyone who might be interested in helping with the writing up some of Ted’s musical notes to please contact us. There’s a lot of material to present (some of which is quite simple to notate), and I could really use your help. Thanks!

~ Paul and Your Friends on the TedGreene.com Team

NEW ITEMS

BAROQUE:
* Baroque Modulation to V, 1980-10-28
* Baroque Practice Patterns in Minor Bass Harmonization, 1980-12-15

Under the “Baroque Ideas” header:
* Baroque Idea #9, Baroque Practice Patterns, 1980-12-20 and 1980-12-21
* Baroque Idea #10, Good Bach Progressions, 1981-09-25
* Baroque Idea #11, Baroque Modulation, 1980-10-05
* Baroque Idea #12, Chromatic Intervals Over Pedals, 1979-07-05 and1983-10
* Baroque Idea #13, Surprise Baroque Modulations, 1984-02-15
* Baroque Idea #14, 3rds Over Pedals, 1980-06-27

BLUES:
Under the “Blues Ideas” header:
* Blues Idea #14, Gospel-Influenced Blues, and Gospelish Blues
* Blues Idea #15, Blue Linear Harmony, 1993-07-03
* Blues Idea #16, A Blue Thing, 1992-07-12
* Blues Idea #17, Blue Motion, 1993-07-19
* Blues Idea #18, Approach Chord Color via the Blue Subdominant IV7, 1989-07-24
* Blues Idea #19, Deep Intense Blues, 1992-06-31
* Blues Idea #20, Double Approach and Parallel Melody Approach, 1985-08-16 and 1990-08-30

CHORD STUDIES:
* 20th Century Romantic Counterpoint, 1981-01-16

Under the “Chording Ideas” header:
* Chording Idea #26, Interesting Consonant V7 – I, 1980-11-24

Under the “Harmonization of a Given Melody” header:
* Assignment to Harmonize a Given Meldoy, 1994-04-20 and 1994-06-09

Under the “Triads” header:
* Expanded Key Progressions Using Open Major Triads, 1999-09-14

SINGLE-NOTE SOLOING:
Under the “Single-Note Ideas” header:
* Single-Note Idea #14, 4ths ala McCoy Tyner and Joe Diorio, 1998-02-27
* Single-Note Idea #15, Melodic Minor: Illustrative Melodic Patterns, 1996-06-25
* Single-Note Idea #16, Diatonic4ths: Melodic Patterns Using Groups of 6, 1992-10-27

TRANSCRIPTIONS:
* When Sunny Gets Blue (Silverman concert), Transcribed by François LeDuc
* White Christmas, Transcribed by François LeDuc

Ted on YouTube

Ted on Facebook

Ted on Twitter

The Official Ted Greene Forums

* Of course, most of the videos are posted right here in our Video Section

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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - My Life with The Chord Chemist - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My Life with The Chord Chemist
A Memoir of Ted Greene, Apotheosis of Solo Guitar
By Barbara Franklin

BUY NOW - Available at amazon.com

Publication Date: Nov 24 2009
Page Count: 276
Trim Size: 8" x 10"

ABOUT THE BOOK
A retrospective of Ted Greene, virtuoso solo guitarist, beloved music teacher, world-renowned author and innovator of unique music concepts for guitar. This book also includes an overview of Ted Greene's early life and musical development, plus an insightful narrative of the 13 years prior to his death

Six agonizing months after losing my beloved Ted, I slowly emerged from a state of profound disbelief, almost coma-like. At that time I didn’t know what to do with the remnants of my life; then a path began to unfold before me. This website was started and became a saving grace.

During the ensuing years, I organized and categorized Ted’s material and personal studies. Upon completion of that massive undertaking, once again, I didn’t know what to do, so I began writing.

I wrote pages, and then threw them away, until once again a path began to unfold. What I wrote is mostly a personal memoir. I suppose it was what I had to write first.

From the preface:

“The decision to reveal parts of our personal life was something I deliberated over for a long time. Because our lives became so inextricably bound, I included what I felt necessary, but not without a considerable amount of apprehension. This book illustrates the many parallels between Ted the musician and Ted the person. I felt it was important to convey how Ted was driven compulsively not just to pursue music, but so many other things he loved.”

With this in mind, here is our story. It IS very personal and I still have apprehensions about publishing it. My hope is that it brings you closer to Ted, as you begin to get to know and understand this unique and extraordinary man and musician.

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