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Spring 2025 • TedGreene.com Newsletter
New Years Greetings!
A warm Spring greeting to all Ted Greene fans, students, and lovers of harmony! We begin this newsletter with some words from Barbara, writing about Ted’s original compositions.
Ted's Compositions
~ Excerpts from Barbara Franklin’s book, My Life With the Chord Chemist.
Ted composed many original “Baroque” pieces in this period of his life. His first piece was written in winter/spring 1968 and appropriately titled, “My 1st Classical Composition.” This was shortly followed by a “Processional in B minor.” In late October he began a “Fantasia in E Minor,” which he did not complete, but resumed work on it again several years later (June of 1970). Among other pieces written around this time, were an “Invention in F,” and in January of the next year his “Pastoral No. 1”. ~ p. 5
 From the summer of 1969 through spring 1970 two more changes of residence took place, the second landed the family in a house in Encino on Havenhurst Place. It was here in this house Ted observed, “I’m in Classical music listening Heaven & (doing) some of my very best composing.” Among his collection of compositions from this period there is a “Sarabande in B Minor,” and later that year a “Bachian” Invention, (however in 1999 when he reviewed the invention, he offered this comment, “but as usual as if thru a Russian ‘Autumn Leaves’). ~ p. 6
Sometime within the past month I had asked Ted if he would show me his original compositions. [This was in 1997] He was quite willing but first had to locate them. Ultimately his search turned up the missing envelope…. ~ p. 68
Now that Ted had re-discovered his compositions he noted, “My Solo Guitar Pieces: almost finished now with cursory retrospective work and play through. I really did compose a ton of stuff (from ‘68 through ’70 - ‘71) and some of its’ beauty holds up really well. Others are strong in spots with flaws that need revising. Given a month or two I think I can do it, if I’m willing to agonize over the ‘joins’ and/or the development – I sure used to. Be honest Ted, you gave 1000’s of hours of your life to these pieces, finish them, at least the most worthy, leave some beauty behind for others, if not for you. Not to literally compare but: what if Carl Maria von Weber had said “Aw heck, the world doesn’t need another Opus 11 Piano Concerto in C!” ~ p. 69
For Ted’s 54th birthday I requested hearing his original classical compositions, and Ted happily obliged. After playing through each one, he began reworking them from his now more sophisticated vantage point. ~ p. 119
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So, where are these compositions? Well, for starters, below are links to a few that have already been posted on this website:
And almost all the “blues” studies in the BLUES section are creations of Ted’s.
https://www.tedgreene.com/teaching/blues.asp
For this Newsletter New Items, we’ve added 4 new pages for Ted Original compositions:
“Fantasia in A minor,” “Ted Greene Original Jazz Tune,” “Ted Greene Original Theme for Development,” and “Two Ted Greene Original Pieces/Sketches.”
When it comes to creating new music, I don’t believe that Ted considered himself very much as a composer, but more as an arranger, a performer, and improviser, and teacher. He was able to instantly come up with 20 or more ways to play a given melody. One could argue that Ted’s compositions consist mostly of his thousands of musical examples that he wrote out for his students that can be found in his lesson pages or “sheets,” as he called them. However, during one of my lessons with Ted, I asked him about the beautiful intros on his “Solo Guitar” album. He humbly admitted that he was most proud of them, saying that much of the album consisted of improvised arrangements, but that he had spent considerable time composing the intros and ending to uniquely fit each song.
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The March 18, 2025 publication of Guitar World digital magazine features an article by Andrew Daly about two-hand tapping pioneer, Randy Resnick. Below are a couple excerpts:
…Ted Greene, who called [Randy] “one of the real legends of the LA guitar scene.”
Andrew Daly: Ted Greene cited you as “one of the real legends of the LA guitar scene.” That must have been gratifying.
Randy Resnick: “I took one lesson from Ted, and then I had a job and couldn’t continue. Ted and Lenny Breau were the most mind-blowing jazz guitarists of the day – so I’m very proud of being called a legend by Ted Greene. Chord Chemistry had a huge effect on my musical knowledge.”
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We’d like to extend a special thanks to Mike de Luca for proofreading all the new lesson pages. He has an eagle-eye for details, and a musical knowledge to match. Not to forget Leon White, as our commander-in-chief, and Jeffrey D Brown, resident technical consultant.
As a final word for this newsletter message, I’d like to invite anyone who might be interested in joining our “TG Team” in helping us with the writing up of Ted’s lesson pages, to please contact us either through the Forums https://forums.tedgreene.com/ or via email at help@tedgreene.support. We are a volunteer-driven website, and the donations that come in are used for the technical upkeep of the site. So, if you are willing to pitch in, it would be as a volunteer like the rest of us here – a labor of love. The “job” would require a very modest amount of graphics skills to notate and add Ted-style chord diagrams, and of course a fair degree of musical understanding and of the guitar. We’d be happy to work with you so you can help us serve Ted’s worldwide family. Thank you.
~ Paul and your friends on the TedGreene.com team
NEW ITEMS
ARRANGEMENTS:
Under the Classical header:
* Fantasia in A minor (Ted Greene Original), 1984-02-17 & 19. [A collection of ideas that Ted wrote for a classical piece. As mentioned in the lesson notes: “Fantasia (Italian for “fantasy”), is a name in music sometimes loosely used for a composition which has little structural form, and appears to be an improvisation; and for a combination or medley of familiar airs connected with original passages of more or less brilliance.” New notation provided.]
AUDIO:
The following 3 files are in the Audio section, under the heading:
Ted Greene Playing at Joey Backenstoe’s Wedding (1989-03-04)
* 7-Song Medley, Ted Greene at Backenstoe Wedding, 1989.
[320 kbps mp3 file, 17:39.
- 00:00 Somewhere, ("West Side Story.” Leonard Bernstein);
- 03:08 Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell);
- 05:17 Danny Boy (traditional Irish melody);
- 08:50 Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (Sammy Fain. Missing portion due to a reel change.);
- 10:38 I Wish You Love (Léo Chauliac);
- 12:13 A Summer Place (Max Steiner)
- 15:31 I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy (“South Pacific,” Richard Rodgers)]
*A Certain Smile, and Tenderly, Ted Greene at Backenstoe Wedding, 1989. [320 kbps mp3 file, 5:12. [“A Certain Smile” 1958, Sammy Fain. “Tenderly” 1946, Walter Gross.]
* Wedding March, and Improvisation, Ted Greene at Backenstoe Wedding, 1989. [320 kbps mp3 file, 5:48. [Ted plays his solo guitar arrangement of Felix Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” followed by some improvisation for about 3 minutes while he talks with some of the wedding guests, touching briefly on “Tenderly” and “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”]
BAROQUE:
* Counterpoint Patterns/Progressions - Descending 3rd Progressions, 1978-06-28. [Several short phrases to be expanded upon for Baroque composition or improvisation. New notation provided.]
* Mozartean 2-Part Counterpoint, 1984-01-10. [Four examples of adding a counterpoint line to the same melody. New notation provided for easy reading.]
BLUES:
* Blues Counterpoint Chord Progressions, 1976-11-28. [Great little chord moves for filling on a dominant chord. New notation, chord names, and Ted-style chord grids provided for easy study.]
CHORD STUDIES:
* Choice Voicing Course, 1986-07-18 & 25, 1987-06-14, and 1987-10-14. [This is a compilation of four pages that Ted labeled as designated for the book he intended to write on Choice Voicings for Guitar. Unfortunately, he never got around to writing it. New notation and grids added.]
* Diversity of Parallel Harmonization of Blue Line, 1991-09-29. [Seven examples provided, demonstrating different ways to harmonize a “blue line.” Notation married with Ted’s original grid diagrams for easy reading/study.]
* Gm6 and Gm-maj7 Type Chords, 1980-08-17. [Ted seems to have catalogued every possible (and some impossible!) voicing for Gm6, Gm-maj7 and related chords. We redrew every grid diagram and added the chord names to each. On these pages Ted made extensive use of optional dots on the diagrams (hollowed dots or circles), and one needs to be aware that when using these optional notes, the chord name will often (not always) change. Keep as a reference page when you have a need for this type of sound, or simply if you want to expand your chord arsenal.]
* Modern 3-Note Harmonization of Dom 7 and Blues Scale Melodies, 1984-01-22. [Twelve examples of harmonizations of dominant 7 or bluesy lines. Some nice ideas for dominant fills. Ted subtitled this page: “3-Note Foundational 9th, 7/11, 3-Note 4ths, Benson Octaves & 5ths and 4ths. Mix in I, vi, bvii, V (open and close triads) for beauty.” Notation and new grid diagrams provided for easy study.]
HARMONY & THEORY:
* More Chord Progressions. [Ted gives 5 examples using I, VI, and V chords in the key of A, then discusses the “Sequence of 4ths.” Newly generated grids and typed text for easy reading.]
* Progressions Built from SWR Movements and SWB Lines. [This is Ted’s original page for a section in his book, Modern Chord Progressions. SWR = Scale-Wise Root, and SWB = Scale-Wise Bass. Typed text and notation provided for clarity.]
* Progressions for Intros, Endings, and Interludes. [Ted describes 30 different progressions (mostly using Roman numerals), and categorizes them in 4 groups: “Pretty Turns,” Blues Turns,” “Progressions,” and “Dominant Sequences.” Retyped text with new grids for easy reference.]
* Secondary Dominant Progressions. [Ted gives us 24 ii7-V7-I progressions in the key of D using chord grids. He then goes on to explain how to use ii7-V7 (or ii7b5-V7) on any diatonic chord, and he encourages us to experiment with II7 instead of ii7. Newly typed text provided for easy reading.]
OTHER:
* Ted Greene Original Jazz Tune. [In writing up Ted’s score for this jazz tune, we followed his instructions for repeats, inserted measures, and the modulation as best as we could interpret them - and we believe we have presented it accurately. In order to hear the composition as Ted envisioned it, we added another staff for guitar-voiced harmony, based on the chord names he used. Of course, the chord voicings presented here represent just one interpretation, and you will certainly want to create your own.
The piece has a modern sound reminiscent of “Dolphin Dance,” and it seems to have a sort of endless harmonic cyclical feeling, perhaps like “Giant Steps.” It sounds best at a metronome setting of about 135.]
* Ted Greene Original Theme for Development, 1978-10-16. [This is a theme Ted started, but stopped after 7 measure, and simply wrote: “etc.” We made new music notation and suggested voicings for the chord names that Ted assigned to each measure.]
* Two Ted Greene Original Pieces/Sketches, 1976-12-15, 1982-02-16. [These are just rough ideas of chord progressions, with only hints of melody here and there. Notated as best as we can decipher Ted’s intention. Perhaps you could come up with a melody?]
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Winter 2025 • TedGreene.com Newsletter
New Years Greetings!
We start 2025 with a thoughtful musical introspective article by Leon White.
Ted and Melody
The winter and the holiday months bring us to the end of another year. The weather and the darkness prohibit travel for many of us here in North America. We face a new year however, and Ted’s gifts to us all continue to bring light and warmth to something we all love. I’d like to get a little “mushy” and share some emotional ideas.
I have the pleasure to work with students who have questions about Ted and one subject in particular that I’d like to share: melody.
Ted’s reputation regarding chords, harmony, and his playing seemingly often lead us away from a hidden gift of his – melody. I recommend a particular page from Ted for all of us to revisit, as I recently have. On the site we have a page of his on the emotions he had identified and listed. Using his gift of language he described (in his detailed list fashion) the various emotions that he recognized in music. (Download Moods and Feelings)
These words meant something to him musically. He could share those emotions musically – without the descriptive labels – in a variety of settings and with his extensive toolset. (We’ll come back to this.)
This page of emotions is perhaps the most profound written language he ever gathered in one place. It lists, in detail, the subtleties and nuances of the feelings he believed could be expressed in music, and that he could invoke in his playing. Whew!
When I first wanted to play, I was trying to cough up a good blues solo. Many of us have traveled the road of learning to improvise, in whatever styles we seek, and in the ‘single line’ style of playing. (See his books, Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 for jazz flavored melodies. Also check out the many lessons in the Single-Note Soloing section of this website.
We are presented with Ted’s beautiful chord melody performances and the baroque improvisations. But we rarely dig-in to the melodies his chords deliver inside his voicings and progressions. Ted’s ‘chord solos’ really give all of us two incredible gifts – the beauty of his melodic creativity, AND, the emotion that he creates in his audiences. And it is deliberate. That is perhaps his most powerful and beautiful art. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, Ted was a big fan of film scores. In particular, the great scores of 1930 – 1960 or so (before the hip jazz combo scores of movies like Dirty Harry by Lalo Shifrin). That was the era of the grand sweeping music of composers like Max Steiner.
While Ted could invoke an orchestral effect using six strings, most of us don’t aspire to that, and many new generation players aren’t even aware of the ‘old movies.’ Modern scores – courtesy of John Williams and his comrades – have brought orchestral music back to movies, but who cares? We’re not orchestras! But the scores are created intentionally to deliver emotions to support the film, characters, or plot. Ted realized this, and he decided to mine all that music to find the emotional content hidden there. As a result, Ted could create the subtle beautiful emotions we all absorb while we’re watching his chords fly by. And it was intentional, melodic, and very powerful. The beauty of his music rests on his understanding of these subtle emotions he heard in film scores, and brought to his guitar – all six strings. (And of course he did the same thing for all classical music.)
Ted was often asked why he didn’t play a 7-string guitar like his hero George Van Eps. Like other students and friends, I heard his answer often: “I’m still working on using six strings.” (or a variation of that comment).
And so, in trying to answer my students’ questions about melody, I returned to Ted’s music, both live and taught. And I think I found the underlying engine for the beauty of all his playing. He wasn’t inspired by scales or inversions. But he did employ them, melodically, to evoke the emotions he was feeling – or the emotions he wanted to share. He discovered, catalogued, analyzed, and learned the musical expression of emotion. And while we all admire the rich harmonic music his chord melody delivered, his Baroque improvisations did the very same thing with only a few notes (typically broken triads – two notes, or even one note, supporting a single line melody). And he improvised all that!
When he and I were just sitting around I’d often request that he interpret one melody in different styles (as I was trying to learn to do this). For example, we were discussing the Casablanca score (by Max Steiner, 1943), and I asked him to render that song with “the big western” treatment. With only a slight pause he took “As Time Goes By” and turned it into a piece that could easily fit as a part of the film “How the West Was Won.” And I pursued it – “How about Baroque?” “How about a simple child’s melody?” He kept up, until we laughed ourselves to a halt. (I did ask him what he was doing, however. You’d have to grab those moments with him whenever you could.)
I’ve looked at hundreds of improvising videos on YouTube, and the one thing I’ve never heard is a discussion of emotion driving an improvised single line solo. That’s not easy to explain, and I’ll admit it is certainly an advanced topic on many levels. But I think there is one Ted-gift under the tree we might have overlooked. It is the brilliant, profound, and beautiful music that each of us might create if we took a few pages from Ted’s emotions list, and gave their expression our voices. Ted showed us that it could be done in all musical styles, and perhaps we can try it too.
While looking forward to a new year, this is also a time to look back. We’d like to thank you all for the support you provide, and to all those who help the site exist. While it can be a joy to work on, it isn’t always easy, and to all those who make the effort we want to say “Thank You, again.” 2025 will be the 20th anniversary of TedGreene.com coming online. That’s a long time! There’s a whole new generation of players arriving on the music scene, and many of them are discovering Ted for the first time, and yet we still have plenty of work to do in getting all of Ted’s music lessons and study pages posted. We appreciate any help with directing the new players to discover Ted and his music and teachings.
Happy New Year!
~ Leon White and your friends on the TedGreene.com team
NEW ITEMS
ARRANGEMENTS:
* Original “Western - Family” Theme, 1978-02-15. [This is Ted’s notes for an original composition that is featured on the collection of recordings of Ted with Rowanne Mark. You can download an improved version of this file from our Audio section here. Of course, on this recording Ted was embellishing that theme with an intro, modulations, and quite a bit of thematic development. This chart shows his skeletal composition. New notation, plus suggested grids have been added. Note that the recording and the chart are both from 1978.]
Under the “Lead Sheet Written by Ted” section:
* Girl Talk – Lead Sheet / Outline, circa 1968. [This page is one of Ted’s “roadmaps” for creating an arrangement or comping study. He wrote this before his 1974 student arrangement write-up (which can be found in the Arrangements section). Here he wrote out the chords to the 2nd and 3rd phrases only, and we extracted the rest of the harmonic choices from his 1974 arrangement, and then matched them all up with the melody and lyrics.]
AUDIO:
* We updated Ted’s “Original Theme” that can be found in the “Ted Greene with Rowanne Mark” recording collection. We used some state-of-the-art noise-reduction software to improve the clarity.
BAROQUE:
* Baroque Cycle of 4ths, 1984-01-15. [Thirteen short studies in 3/4 time, plus a theme for development in 4/2 time. New notation for easy reading.]
* Baroque Cycle of 4ths Progressions in 2 Voices, 1982-05-21. [Thirteen examples of cycle of 4ths (I to IV), or descending 3rd progressions, using 2 voices, and 2 going to 3 voices. New notation provided.]
* Bass and Harmonically Organized 2-Part Counterpoint, 1984-02-10. [1-to-1 counterpoint, following a progression of I-IV-V-I. New notation provided for easy reading and study.]
* Untitled Baroque (1984-01-14). [This is a collection of miscellaneous Baroque ideas Ted had in his private studies papers. New notation and chord names provided for easy reading and study.]
CHORD STUDIES:
* 9th Chord Tonality, 1978-08-25. [Ted wrote these short studies for dominant 9th chord sounds, and the first six are like chord-streams. New notation and suggested grid diagrams provided.]
* Choice Dominant Voicings by Soprano, 1993-07-31. [This is a collection of 32 of some of Ted’s favorite dominant chord forms, given as grid chord diagrams.]
* Chords by Bass – Key of A Minor, 1976-03-20. [Ted was always on a quest to map out and find all the possibilities of various chord voicings. That quest ultimately led him to develop his V-System. This page shows some early attempts to discover the chords in the key of A minor with A in bass (Root position). New notation provided for easy reading.]
* Embellishment of A Dominant 7th, 1978-07-04. [Ted subtitled this page, “Systematic thinking on dominant 7th with moving lines.” These include 2-note moving voices surrounding various dominant chord shapes, which include some chromatic or passing tones. These are very useful moves to add whenever you need a little something to fill in over a dominant chord. Notation provided married with Ted’s original grid diagrams.]
FUNDAMENTALS:
* String Transference and Chord Voicings Quiz, 1976-05-25. [Ted created this quiz to hammer home the principle of string transference. An additional “Answers” page is included to check your work…no peeking!]
HARMONY & THEORY:
* Borrowed Major, Mixed Major, Major Polychord, and Cycle Majors Tonality, 1977-07-16, 1980-04-08. [This page is a collection of various progressions using a variety of just major type chords. Ted was very specific in his chord symbols to indicate the bass and soprano voices. Knowing a bit about figured bass notation will be helpful for example #3: A 6/4 chord means 2nd inversion triad. And under the Miscellaneous Ideas section, a 6/5 chord means a 1st inversion 7th chord. Retyped and redrawn grids provided.]
* Chords in 3rds, 6ths, 10ths, and Triads, 1978. [Ted shows us some double-line chord scales (and a few triadic chord streams) that can be an excellent resource for fills over specific chords. This is an interesting and useful collection of musical ideas.]
* Common Chord Types, 1977-07-18. [For major family chord types, using Eb root for examples. Ted notated this on the Grand Staff (both bass and treble clefs), and seems to be written more for theoretical purposes rather than practical, as some of the chords are more than six voices, and many are not easily applicable for guitar, but better suited for piano.]
* Complete Chart of Chord Types, 1978-07-15, 1979-01-29, 1980-04-17. [Ted labeled this as the “‘almost’ complete chart…” Again, here our Chord Chemist is on his unending quest for documenting all possible chord voicings, systematically mapped out. Undoubtedly, this page was part of his thinking as he worked on developing his V-System of 4-note chord voicing system. New notation provided.]
* Harmony, circa 1973. [This article is a continuation of Ted’s 5-page series on “Cadences.” It covers some excellent intermediate fundaments like temporary modulations, secondary dominants, pivot chords, creating lines between two given chords, the 4-3 suspension, modulations in the minor key, and more. Retyped with newly drawn graphics, this series will be an excellent one to study.]
SINGLE-NOTE SOLOING:
* Pentatonic Melodic Combinations for Single-Line, 1982-02-21. [Hundreds of 4-note patterns for use over Dm6/9. The red notes indicate the variable in the sequence at hand. I believe that Ted intended the student to continue each pattern up or down to the next octave as well. Ted also wrote, “Many patterns sound great with sustained points and multiple sustains.” Retyped notation.]
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