Ted Greene Modern Chord Progressions for Classical and Jazz - has anyone else worked through it?

Jazzy_Jake

After around 3 years of weekly study I have almost made my way through this absolute bible of harmony for guitar (only the final setion to go, and it looks like even Ted got a bit bored while writing this part haha). I feel like it was worth it although still not sure about the middle section giving 100 examples of voice leading from the I to IV and then having you complete each example through the entire major scale - they are good warmups I guess.

Anyway, anyone else worked through this beast? Given the knowledge Ted had stored in his brain I feel it's a worthy journey for anyone serious about understanding harmony on guitar. It has definitely given me more tools for doing chord melody arrangements of songs. The first 20 or so pages would also be good stand alone, as they just give a list of triad and major 7 chord shapes.

My favorite aspect of the book was that all the chords are presented in context of a progression with voice leading, so you are not just learning chord shapes and you are mixing different shapes together. Through the examples, Ted also constantly shows you new ways of thinking about chords as melodies, and multiple ways to harmonize the same melody, which is cool.

joeW

Anyone ‘else’ ????  I actually think you are the first person ever.  Even the reviewers tapped out after 100 pages or so.  Great work on getting thro it. I find I get a few concepts which I can recall and the rest I end up forgetting.  Perhaps this would stick better given that the chords are played more in progression context? 

3 years is one hell of a commitment- well done 

Jazzy_Jake

Haha thanks man! I love Ted's playing so much I decided to stick it out and go through the whole book. I feel like it does give a very comprehensive view of guitar harmony but like you say, no normal human could actually remember all of it although I did  my best. I also have normal size hands, so all of the closed voice piano style chords were tough.

I feel the key takeaways from it are the flexibility with chords that Ted tries to show you, in terms of how you can voice lead and also how much inner voice movement you can achieve with even basic chords. It's almost like he gives a new insight every few pages.

The other good thing is, when I look at transcriptions of Ted's arrangements of songs now, there are few surprises as his approach and vocabulary is covered very well in the book.

joeW

I might get it, have a quick look thro and recro bump reply in 3-5 years time!

CoffeeAndTV

I had the book and worked through some of it about 20/25 years ago.  I’ll be honest, I don’t think I can remember a lot about it.  I also used his Single Note Soloing books.  

I got to the point where I just wanted to lift the ideas off the recordings that really spoke to me - I could hear them in context to a playing situation. 

TTony

I've got one of his other books on my guitar-books shelf, but it would be fair to say that I'm not quite as far progressed with it as @Jazzy_Jake is with this one, despite having had the book for slightly longer than 3 years, and it being not quite so technically specalist.

Congrats JJ - that is proper application.

west

x

GuyBoden

Most of Ted Greene's teaching are available for free download on the Ted Greene web site. I've used his Baroque patterns, they're nice.

An outstanding player/teacher, with a great Tele sound too.

Free Teaching Material

https://www.tedgreene.com/teaching/

jdgm

I've had 4 of his books (and his LP) since the 80s.  He was a genius but "Jazz guitar single-note soloing vol 1" f***ed me up a bit as I worked my way through that and tried to do all of it (everything in 7 different positions) and my left hand just won't do that.  Good exercises but very difficult to play, remember and apply. 

The chordal stuff is much better - the book you mention and "Chord Chemistry", although some of the stretches are not possible for me these days.  I've downloaded "Days of Wine and Roses" and "Flashes" (which he did for Ry Cooder to play on his 'Jazz' LP) among a lot of other stuff.  His ideas and voicings are fantastic and really open up a new world on the instrument IMO.